New York City on the Edge of Forever
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: After a madman changes history with a stolen Area-51 device Atom must travel back in time to repair the damage, or face annihilation. This is my second Astro Boy pastiche set in NYC.
1. Chapter 1

**New York City on the edge of forever**

_Authors thoughts: This will be my second Astro fan story in my own setting. This one is close to being a crossover and will pull in plot ideas from an episode of 'STTOS', 'Back to the future', and 'The Philadelphia Experiment', which is to say this is a time travel story. I have a few other ideas cooking so I hope to add at least two other fan fiction Astro stories set in the same 'world'. I welcome your comments in a review, let me know if you like this divergent world for Atom. I've always wanted to see him as an American, though in reality he belongs to the world.  
_

_Dr. Emmett Brown: "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!"_

**USS Eldridge, 1951**

C. R. Hamilton found his path blocked by a marine holding a rifle. The January wind blew through his coat and the cold caused his eyes to tear. "

"I just wanted to say goodbye to the old girl", he told the armed guard. "In a few days she'll belong to Greece."

The marine guard seemed unmoved, but he didn't feel threatened by Hamilton's presence on the dock.

"I can't let you on board sir", he said. "My orders are no one can board till the inspection is complete".

A small crew of civilians were on board the Eldridge making a final inspection before the ship would be turned over to its' new owners. The Eldridge had been decommissioned some four and a half years ago and had sat in mothballs awaiting either a reprieve or the scrapers torches. All of her special electronic gear had been removed years ago and silently hauled off under the cover of night to storage at an Area-51 warehouse. The CIA was now probably just making sure that they hadn't missed anything important at that time.

"Can I at least snap a few pictures of her before she's handed over to the Greeks?", Hamilton asked.

"Sure, why not?" the marine answered. "You were the Eldridge's C.O. weren't your?" he asked.

"Yes, my first command", Hamilton replied bringing his brownie up to his eyes to frame a shot.

"Well, goodbye old girl", he sighed as he put the camera back into his coat pocket and walked away.

**Hill Valley Ca, 1985**

Larry Conrad controlled the throttle on the small switcher diesel locomotive pulling a train of four gondolas. The yard engine had little trouble pulling the short train of lightly loaded ore hoppers. The Hill Valley spur was only a few miles long and connected several sidings running to warehouses and a few quarry pits up to the mainline on the other side of the Eastwood Ravine. The spur had once been part of the mainline back in the late 1880's when the first bridge had been built over the ravine. The current steel trestle had replaced an older wooden bridge just after WWII. The section of track he was on ran uphill on a gentle grade to reach the bridge and then downhill where it connected to the double tracked mainline. The single track spur had several sidings to allow traffic coming in the the other direction to pass. Larry's train had just passed the last siding before the bridge. As the train rounded a bend the bridge came into view and late afternoon sun was now in his eyes. He squinted and lowered the sun shades on the locomotive's windscreen to try and block the glare. Suddenly he saw a flash of light on the bridge. He blinked and then saw an automobile on the tracks heading straight for him at high speed!

"Idiot!" he yelled aloud to himself. What stupid thrill seeker would race a car over the railroad bridge?

Larry grabbed the horn handle and let out several loud blasts from the locomotives air horn hoping that the driver of the car would pull off the tracks before it was too late. Larry applied full brakes, both air and dynamic, but he knew he would never stop the train in time. At the last moment the driver of the automobile threw open his door and leaped out of the car into the bushes. Larry covered his face with his hands as if it would do any good and the locomotive plowed into the abandoned car and tore it to shreds.

**Poindexter Drake, 1974 - 1983  
**

Poindexter Drake felt that life had been handing him lemons forever. He was a very smart and devoted student and felt that he deserved all the top honors. In High School he graduated in the top 99.99% of his class, which is to say he felt he should have been AT the VERY TOP of his class, but in fact he was only number two. "Some G-D Chink" took the top honor he scowled, thinking of the Korean American that would be Valedictorian at his graduation ceremony. The same "G-D Chink" also took HIS spot at M.I.T. Poindexter mussed. HE had to settle for being admitted to Cal-Tech. Not actually a bad second choice, but he had been planning on going to Cambridge Ma. for past four years. He couldn't understand why the famous college would only take one student from his high school, and never even considered he might be inadequately qualified in some way.

The same thing seemed to happen to him at Cal-Tech. This time it was some "G-D Indian with a dot on his forehead" had dared to earn a higher GP average than HE had, and he once again had to settle for the number two spot on the stage come graduation day.

Still Poindexter had found himself with plenty of job offers after completing his undergraduate work. He weighed going on for his masters degree or accepting a position with some prestigious firm, perhaps continuing his education at night and working during the day. In the end Lockheed offered him a position at their famous "skunk works" working on several projects that would take him to the infamous air base at Area-51. He couldn't get in much deeper geek than that he felt.

But even there Poindexter Drake found himself being over shadowed by others. He was in a hurry to make it big time and wanted to discover or invent something that would make himself famous and rich, though not necessarily in that order. Poindexter was seduced by the dark side of the technology at Area-51 and allowed himself to coerced by foreign espionage agents attempting to buy secrets. For some reason Poindexter had convinced himself that he was so clever he could outwit everybody and defeat all the security systems at the base to pull off the heist undiscovered. He even thought he could cast the blame on someone else, and he knew just who would be his fall guy.

Dr. Albert Tenamann had been at Area-51 for three years when Poindexter started working there under his supervision. He thought Poindexter Drake was a rare genius who would do great things in science and technology and wanted to guide the young man toward a successful career. Albert was leading an engineering group in the design of a new type of aircraft that would become quite common some thirty years in the future, drones. Drake saw it this as his ticket to wealth and the Red Chinese government wanted it at any price. He almost got away with his plan to steal the data and plant the blame on tenamann. Poindexter's downfall was underestimating his rivals talent of observation. In the end tenamann discovered the plot, but just in time. Albert could have turned Poindexter over to the FBI or CIA, he could have caused the young man to end up spending most of his life in a federal pen for the crime. Instead, Dr. Tenamann managed to hid the theft and cover up the crime. He did give Poindexter a choice, leave quietly or face charges. Albert eventually gave Poindexter a very carefully worded letter of referral which allowed him to restart his career in technology somewhere else. Even so Poindexter Drake held a grudge and vowed he'd get his revenge someday.

**Ken'ichi Yamamoto**

Ken'ichi Yamamoto was born after the US occupation of Japan had ended. He was a distant relative of the famous Admiral who had suffered defeat in the battle of Midway. Ken'ichi was a bright boy and excelled in science. He graduated from the Tokyo Denki University with honors just about the time that the Tokyo Disney theme park opened. There were several openings for engineers at the park, many of the attractions involved automated characters.

Ken'ichi wanted to design robotic displays for the park, and he found himself working under an American engineer named Tenamann. Dr. Albert Tenamann was a genius in the design of almost anything, or so it appeared to Yamamoto. Tenamann tried to nurture Ken'ichi's engineering talents, but the young engineer felt he was not ever going to be put in charge of his own project as long as the American worked there. He felt he was being mistreated by management whom was putting more responsibility in the hands of a foreigner rather than a native born Japanese. He didn't know that Dr. Tenamann was a dual citizen of both the US and Japan.

The one good thing that happened to Ken'ichi Yamamoto at Disney Tokyo was Sachiko Yamada. She was working as a tour guide at the park and they made a point to have lunch together every day after he had first bumped into her. Just out of High School, Sachiko was working at the park to raise money for her college tuition.

Yamamoto accepted a position at the Honda company hoping to work on their robotic systems, especially the Asimo project. He had a good letter of recommendation from the Disney corporation and Dr. Tenamann had also put in a good word for him at Honda. However Yamamoto wasn't given an opportunity to work on the Asimo project, though he did work on factory automation systems that increased efficiency on the automotive and motorcycle assembly lines.

Sachiko was accepted on a foreign exchange program at the Polytechnic Institute in N.Y. Ken'ichi applied for a teaching coop there and was accepted. Both of them had learned some English while working at the Disney park and they would bone up on the subject before traveling to America. Both Sachiko and Ken'ichi fell in love with NYC and decided try and stay in the US. The Polytechnic Institute offered Yamamoto a full time position teaching on their engineering staff and he applied for a resident status leading to citizenship. He and Sachiko were married and they found an apartment in Brooklyn. Eventually Ken'ichi was in charge of the Institutes' robotics laboratory which gave him great satisfaction.

The only sadness in Ken'ichi and Sachiko's lives came from their lack of children. They had wanted to start a family ever since coming to America but the couple had remained barren. They had considered adoption but were either too busy or too scared to start the process of looking and applying.

**Atom, Brooklyn NYC, Present Date  
**

Simon Green arrived at Professor Yamamoto's office at the Polytechnic University on Jay Street Brooklyn with Atom in tow. The boy robot had never ridden on the subway before and it had the same impression on him that it would on any other nine year old boy who rode on the "F" train for the very first time. He insisted on standing in the front car so he could look out the "storm window" to get the engineer's point of view. Simon had knocked on the motorman's window when the train was sitting in the 50th street station and asked him if he wouldn't mind leaving the window shade pulled up so Atom could see out the passenger side widow of the R46. The motorman agreed, perhaps the $20 bill that Simon offered him had something to do with it.

"Good day Ken'ichi-san", Simon greeted Professor Yamamoto. Atom repeated the greeting adding a small bow as he finished the 'san'.

"Good to finally meet you", Yamamoto said. "It's too bad Albert isn't here, I was hoping to see him again after all these years"

"He left for Japan a few days ago", Simon replied. "I'm glad you agreed to met Atom, I hope you and your wife would like to adopt him".

"You know, we just about gave up with that idea at this point", Ken'ichi started, "We've both advanced a bit in age and wonder how long we can keep up with a child".

"I tried to explain that Atom is a special case, he could probably be of as much assistance to you as you would be his caretaker. Atom also has special needs that you as an engineer can provide"

Simon closed the door to the office and then pulled the shade down on the office window. He nodded to Atom who then removed his shirt and placed it on the desk. He then touched his right hand index finger to his chest and a blue light appeared under the finger. The outline of a panel appeared in the blue glow and Atom then opened the chest panel to reveal his inner mechanisms.

"My God!", Ken'ichi gasped, "Can this be possible?"

"Yes. Dr. Tenamann created a masterpiece here. Robert Levinson describes him as a class III cyborg because he has a human brain re-implemented as software on a hyper computer using quantum logic.", Simon told him, adding "Atom is actually a clone of Dr. Tenamann's nine year old son, Adam, though he is a lot more than that".

"Atom is what I've been trying to create myself for many years. When the Japanese government announced the 'project Atom' initiative a few years back I tried to get the Polytechnic Institute to align our robotics projects with it but there was little interest", Professor Yamamoto said.

"I have spare parts and fuel for Atom at the museum complex, and you're welcome to visit us at anytime. I've arranged a security clearance for you", Simon told him.

"Sachiko will be surprised", Ken'ichi said, "but I'm sure she will accept him as her own child".

"What about you Atom?", Simon asked, "are you OK with this?"

Atom looked Professor Yamamoto over quickly. He then looked at the picture of Mrs. Yamamoto on the desk and smiled. "I have a good feeling about this Simon", he answered.

"Atom I hope you will agree to being enrolled in the public school so you can interact with children your own age, whatever that is", Ken'ichi told him.

"I'd like that", Atom replied. "I miss my brother Adam".

"Then we'll see to it immediately", the Professor answered, "As soon as we give your new mother a chance to fuss over you".

Simon took the subway back to Manhattan alone, but he felt quite happy.

**Poindexter Drake, 1992**

After quietly leaving the skunk-works at Area-51 Poindexter accepted a position at Microsoft. True to his word, Dr. Tenamann gave him a positive reference. Actually Drake was lucky that the boys in Seattle didn't ask any embarrassing questions of Albert, and that he didn't volunteer any information that Poindexter wouldn't have wanted his future employer to know. Still he harbored a grudge against the doctor and promised himself revenge, eventually.

Poindexter became a valuable asset at Microsoft as the new Windows operating system began to become popular. With the rise of the Internet new avenues opened to him as he found himself with eyes and ears inside of places that would have been denied anyone without a proper security clearance. He started his hacking slowly at first as he learned the ins and outs of the network. Finally he found what he was looking for, a back door into the skunk-work's treasure trove that once had been his. He discovered a lot of new secret bits of technology that had been invented or stolen by the governments massive mind trust. Poindexter flexed his new cybernetic muscles and tested the weak spots in every corporate network he could find. He offered his services to every one of the companies whose networks he tickled, promising them he'd show them how to shore up their security from the 'Black Hats' that would rob them blind. He would also cause damage to those who wouldn't want his services, eventually. It wasn't long before his network security side line became a full time occupation and he said his goodbyes to Redmond and moved closer to the Nevada treasure trove that he planned to pick when the time was ripe.

**Atom, Brooklyn NYC, Present date**

Atom spent the afternoon with the professor either in the back of classrooms, lecture halls or engineering labs during classes his new guardian was teaching, or in Ken'ichi's office thumbing through his bookshelf. When it became time to go home Yamamoto called his wife on his cellphone to inform her that he was leaving and that their new family member was arriving. They exited the university and entered the Jay Street subway station to catch a southbound "F" train to the residential section of Brooklyn. The Yamamoto's owned part of a multi family home in racially mixed area just west of the Avenue U station of the former Culver El that carried the "F" line of the subway above McDonald Avenue. It was a short walk from the station to the house. The Yamamoto's lived in an upstairs three bedroom apartment overlooking the street.

"I'm home dear", Ken'ichi announced as he and Atom started to climb the stairs to the second floor from the street entrance. Sachiko Yamamoto greeted them at the doorway to the second floor apartment.

"This is our new son", Ken'ichi told his wife.

"Hello Sachiko-chan", Atom replied. "I'm very happy to meet you".

"Hello dear", she replied grabbing him in her arms with a huge bear hug.

"What should I call you?" she asked.

"I've been going by 'Atom'", he told her. "But you can call me Adam if you like".

"Atom?", she laughed. "I guess the other kids tease you because of your height?"

That sounded like a good enough answer to Atom. He and Ken'ichi had already decided not to tell Sachiko about Atom being a robot, at least not yet anyway.

"Yes, that is true", Atom admitted with a laugh.

"Let me show you the house son", Sachiko told him as she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him toward her. She had a solid grip Atom thought.

Atom's new room had been ready for several years as the Yamamoto's had tried several times for a child of their own. Each time Sachiko had missed a period they would start adding to the new child's room to be only to find it was another false alarm. When the couple had decided to adopt they had started to adjust the furnishing for an older child instead of an infant and the room was now a hodgepodge of decor, blue, pink, infant and teen all rolled into one. Atom didn't care, he looked around and saw that he had a bed, a computer desk, and a TV set. His needs were simple and had all been taken care of.

**Area-51 storage locker at government warehouse 13, location top secret – present date.**

It had taken Poindexter years of work to discover the existence of the equipment. It had taken almost as long to find where it was hidden. He felt the time and effort would prove to be very well spent. He was a bit surprised that Dr. Tenamann didn't have a hand in this, but he wasn't surprised that Robert Levinson did. Bob had actually been one of the few geeks at Area-51 that Poindexter almost took a liking to. They might have become friends if Bob hadn't been associated with that damn Tenamann.

From the technical details that he had been able to piece together the radar set should be able to break through the Kronos barrier to enable him to reach back in time and correct his past mistake that led to his disgraceful fall at Area-51. He'd also get his revenge on Tenamann. First however, he had to physically break into the storage area. He'd already made that possible by his cyber break in of the place. He now had a fake security pass and could disable all the security alarms when needed.

Poindexter had hired a motley crew of criminal types he had found by setting up a sting on Craig's list. He and his soldiers of fortune arrived at the desert facility at sunset waiting for the opportune time for their break in. Warehouse 13 was located somewhere in the American southwest desert. The huge building is mostly buried under the sand with just the front face and only entrance not buried. A well camouflaged road leads from the facility to a main highway. The road looks like an abandoned two lane blacktop in dire need of repair, but beneath its' cracked top lies a steel reinforced concrete roadbed several feet thick. The road could handle the weight of NASA's immense crawler used to move the Space Shuttle and Saturn-V moon rockets to the launch pad …. at 60 mph.

The private army stopped at the main door while Drake used an app on his cellphone to access the network and send a bit of Trojan software into the security system.

"Wait for it ….", he laughed counting backwards from ten. As he reached seven the huge overhead doors groaned and started to lift open. He and his army drove their vehicles into the complexes loading dock area. Half the force stayed to guard the entrance while Poindexter and the a smaller contingent headed deeper into the facility. Guided by a map application on his phone Poindexter navigated through the corridors finally stopping at a area containing a large plywood box several tens of feet on a side. The men removed chainsaws from their backpacks and started to cut their way into the cube. Finally they found what they had come for. It was rather unimpressive looking. A small pickup truck with a rather exotic looking electronics package sitting in the bed. Mounted on a small A-frame welded into the truck bed was a small satellite dish antenna. Poindexter slowly grew a smile that erupted in a full toothy grin. He laughed and rubbed his hands together. He climbed into the truck's cab and started the engine. He was happy to find that it had been left fully fueled and with a fully charged battery. How thoughtful of the government! With the engine running he walked to the back of the truck and found the control panel for the radar set. Drake switched it on and observed the readings on the meters and gauges. Finally he pressed a test button and looked the set over carefully. On one of the circuit boards was mounted a small "Y" shaped discharge tube that stated to pulsate with a soft blue glow. An LCD panel cycled though several readings and announced "Self tests, passed. READY".

"Excellent!", Poindexter laughed shutting down the system. "OK men, let's pack up and get out of here".

**Atom, Brooklyn NY.**

Atom was sitting on his new bed reading one of the magazines that Ken'ichi had left in the room for him. Suddenly he felt dizzy with a sharp pain in his chest. Atom had never felt anything like that before and was scared. The pain inside increased and he felt a spasm wrenching his insides. He painfully walked into the bathroom and stood in front of a mirror while he opened his chest panel. Inside his main computer card cage was a module that was pulsating with a soft blue light. Then just as quickly as it started the pain and dizziness stopped. The circuit module stopped glowing. Atom closed his chest panel and still in a daze walked back to the bed, laid down and passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

**New York City on the edge of forever**

**Chapter 2**

_Dr. Emmett Brown: No, no, no, no, no, this sucker's electrical, but I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity I need. _

**Atom, Brooklyn**

Atom work up confused and still a bit dizzy. Mrs. Yamamoto was yelling from the kitchen for him to come down for dinner. The events of the day slowly came back to him and he knew where he was.

Ken'ichi had questioned him on all sorts of things during the subway trip home from the Institute. He had felt a bit weird asking Atom what it was like being a robot, but he wanted to know how to take care of him.

Ken'ichi: "Do you need to sleep?"

Atom:: "My brain seems to follow human bio-rythms which include cycles of inactivity. I guess that's because my core programming started out as a copy of my brother's brain 'programming', even the lowest level routines. I even have dreams".

Ken'ichi: "What about food, do you need to eat?"

Atom:: "I don't have the same digestive system that a living being does. But I do have taste sensors that work just like yours. I think I like the same tastes that most kids do, and I know I enjoy the taste and texture of food. But, I don't feel hunger, at least not for solid nourishment. If my energy gets low I would feel that as a hunger pain. I can feel thirsty since my body needs moisture for lubrication and cooling. (Also so I can spit!). The only difference is that I crave oily liquids more than sweet ones (though I do like sweet things since am am programmed like a kid!)."

Ken'ichi: "But what happens to what you eat?"

Atom:: "Actually most the same thing that happens to what you eat, it ends up in the toilet!. I get rid of the waste the same way, out the same place. (Not liquid wastes though). I have a simple chemical processor that extracts liquids and lubricants from food stuff. I also have a fuel cell that can convert what's left into electrical power, but most of my energy comes from a cold fusion He3 reactor".

Ken'ichi: "How do you know all this? You sound more like a scientist talking tech than a kid?"

Atom: "Actually I've got the pdf files of my technical specifications and blueprints in my memory. I'm just reading them to you, sorta-kinda".

Ken'ichi: "So is there anything special we should get you in the way of food or drink?"

Atom: "Well, I don't want to gross you out but I actually like Caster Oil thinned with some mineral water. I like pizza and frosted flakes (not together!) Oh, I really love ice cream! It's a great coolant and the texture really sends me off!"

Ken'ichi: "I'll try and figure out how to let your new mother know. By the way, I think we need to figure out how we are going to address each other."

Atom: "Yeah, I don't think I'm going to be able to call you father or dad. I don't mean any disrespect, it's just that I still think of Dr. Tenamann as my father."

Ken'ichi: "That's perfectly natural son. Is it OK if I call you son, in a generic sense that is?"

Atom: "I guess I'd rather you just call me Atom, but if you let 'son' slip out now and then I won't correct you or be offended."

Ken'ichi: "Is Atom-Chan OK?"

Atom: "Sure, I like that too!"

Ken'ichi: "You can call me 'Ken' if you like. I prefer the Americanized format these days, but I won't object to Ken'ichi-san either".

Once they had got all that out of the way the two of them felt more at ease with each other. However Atom's first dinner with the Yamamoto's was still a bit awkward. Sachiko Yamamoto decided to do something simple so she resorted to "Tea over rice". Ken'ichi ran out to the local market and found some mineral water and vegetable oil. He made a 50-50 mixture and put it in a blender for a few minutes, and then offered it to Atom who took a few gulps and smiled with approval. Atom took his time eating the tea and rice, and found the traditional Japanese fare quite good.

After dinner Atom found Ken'ichi alone while Sachiko was putting the dinner dishes away.

"Ken'ichi-san, I have something I need to tell you", Atom started.

"Yes Atom?"

Atom told him of his pain attack earlier and the strange glow inside his computer circuitry.

"I guess you want us to see the guys at the museum complex?"

"I'd really like to see my dad", Atom sobbed, "but Bob would be able to help".

"OK, we'll go there tomorrow. I have Simon's email address, I'll let him know to expect us."

Atom and Ken took the "F" train to Jay Street and changed for the "A" train. They changed again at the 59th Street station for an uptown local and got off at 81st Street. They entered the Museum from the subway level where Simon was waiting for them.

"How did you know we were here?" Ken'ichi asked.

"Isaac told me when you got off the train", Simon asked and then realized Ken'ichi was still confused.

"Isaac is a computer daemon running on our systems. He was able to track Atom's location via Atom's built in systems, but only because he has the passwords. You'll meet Isaac soon", he added.

Atom repeated his story to Robot. He explained about the intense pain and the glowing module in his computer assembly. Simon and Ken'ichi stood near a computer graphics terminal where Isaac's image was looking out at Atom.

"Sit down on the lab table", Bob told Atom.

Atom did as he was asked. He sat down on the edge of the table with his legs hanging over the side and removed his shirt. He then opened his chest panel. Bob looked inside. The module plugged into the end slot of Atom's computer assembly was consisted of two stacked circuit boards with many metal cased IC's. A small "Y" shaped glass discharge tube enclosed in a metal screened enclosure was soldered to one of the circuit boards. It was quiet now, but a small red LED on one of the boards was blinking slowly. Bob had a look on his face that either displayed deja vu, or the look of having just seen a ghost. Maybe both.

"What's going on Robert?", Simon asked. He knew the look on Bob's face. Robert looked puzzled.

"I recognize the circuity on this module, but I can't figure out how it got here. Maybe Albert installed it, but I know I didn't. Atom bring up the self diagnostic on your HUD", Bob said.

Atom only had to think about what he needed to do and his diagnostic control panel popped up in his field of view in much the same way that a fighter pilot can see his targeting display superimposed on the windscreen of his cockpit.

"Bring up the hardware inventory and tell me if there is an entry for slot five of the computer frame", Bob instructed him.

Atom held his right index finger in front of his face to touch the panel that was hanging in virtual space in front of him. Slot five had no description other than "Ready".

"There is an entry, but no description or controls. Just the result of the self test stating the module is on line and ready", Atom answered.

"Do you have any idea what that piece of hardware inside of Atom is for?" Simon asked him.

"I can tell you where it came from, and what I think it's for" Bob said. "But the story behind it is rather strange"...

"I started working at Area-51 sometime in 1983. Albert was already there and deeply involved in drone aircraft power plant development. As you probably know, the results of that research are now powering Atom and give him the ability to fly. I was working with a group involved with improving stealth technology. We were also looking at ways to defeat it. I was digging though many years of previous work in the field and we uncovered the fact that the electronics from the USS Eldridge were in storage in the Area-51 lockers at government warehouse area 13. I had the stored equipment brought to our lab so we could examine it and do a reverse engineering job on it."

"The USS Eldridge? Wasn't that the ship from the Philadelphia experiment?", Simon asked.

"Only if you believe in conspiracy theories. The Eldridge was briefly used as a test platform for a stealth radar system. Special modulators and demodulators were installed in her radar sets. They tried to make use of predicted behaviors governed by Einstein's Unified Field Theory to refract electromagnetic waves. It was hoped to achieve radar or even visual invisibility. Despite common folklore, that didn't happen, but they did mange to improve on the imaging of targets, even if the enemy was attempting to jam their radar.", Robot lectured.

"That old equipment consisted of a room full of seven foot tall relay racks, each one of which had several chassis full of 6L6G vacuum tubes. There were enough of those high power tetrodes to give a modern day retro-audiophile a hard on."

Atom blushed a bit at the remark.

"Maybe you'd better try some less colorful metaphors", Simon suggested.

"Sorry", Bob laughed. "Anyhow, I re-designed the equipment making use of modern components such that it now fit on a single circuit board and would interface with the latest radar equipment. Our initial tests made use of a long range radar set at the Area-51 AFB. We switched the special modulator-demodulator in and out while fine tuning the radar under different jamming conditions to see if we could still detect long and short distant targets. Several times in a few weeks we picked up some very weird echoes on the radar, and couldn't identify what the source was, save for the location somewhere near Hill Valley Ca."

Bob paused to get a drink of water and continued.

"One of my buddies quickly threw together a smaller range unit and loaded it onto a flatbed truck. His crew drove out to the Hill Valley area and tried to catch the phantom in action. They picked up three more echoes, two in rapid succession originating near the rail road crossing over the Eastwood ravine. When a crew got there they found the remains of a small car that had been totally pulverized by a collision with a locomotive. They interviewed the engineer of the train who reported a strange story."

"He was approaching the bridge over the ravine and could see a clear track ahead when suddenly there was a flash of light on the bridge and out of nowhere this car appeared on the tracks rolling toward him. He hardly had any time to apply his brakes before smashing into the car, totally destroying it. The vehicle's only occupant saw the oncoming train and jumped out of the car and ran clear only seconds before it was too late. The engineer thought the car might have been a DeLorean, which was later confirmed from the wreckage. Among the debris they found some strange electronics, some of it quite modern, other bits looking like a 1950's RCA B&W TV chassis, and a strange discharge tube in a box. The only identification on the device were the initials E.L.B."

"Some other Area-51 urbergeeks and myself analyzed the gizmo. It took us a few months, but we managed to produce three miniaturized versions of the electronics from that thing that we thought would function, though we had no idea exactly what that function was. It was thought from the way the car had suddenly appeared from nowhere that it was some kind of cloaking device. So we built a small radar set, and hooked one of the modules up to it, set it in the back of a pickup truck, and decided to test it out in the middle of nowhere on the plains of Kansas. I wasn't with the crew that drove out to the test site, I was busy building equipping a second truck with similar equipment. The third module was put in storage, and I'm certain that unit is what is now in Atom's computer frame".

Bob paused for another drink of water and continued the story,

"So two of the Area-51 engineers were in this pickup truck hoping to demonstrate a cloaking radar but they had no idea how to activate the strange electronic discharge tube or it's purpose. They were in tornado country where the sky can suddenly darken producing a funnel cloud that will suck you up to Oz. Well they were getting some good readings on the equipment during one run and suddenly the sky did grow dark with purple clouds and a funnel dropped out of the sky and touched down on the road that they were on. The tornado grew in size as it headed toward them until they were facing an F5 monster. They realized they had better get out of there in a hurry, and their only course of action was to try and out run the storm. They left in such a hurry they didn't even shut off the equipment. They passed a Kansas State trouper on the road who was also trying to out run the storm. The officer was the only witness to what happened next. He said that the pickup passed him doing somewhere between eighty five to ninety miles an hour when the clouds produced a bolt of lighting that struck the back of the truck. The pickup was surrounded by a ball of intense light and disappeared, vanishing without a trace! Suddenly the tornado made a sharp left turn to cut across the grassy plains and the sky cleared. The trooper made a U turn and headed back to where the truck had vanished. He stopped his patrol car a few yards ahead of the spot and walked back. There were two scorched tire marks where the truck had last been seen. He walked off to the side of the road to look for debris. Suddenly, behind him there was a blinding flash of light and the pickup re-appeared and struck his car at about ninety mph. The force of the impact ruptured the gas tanks of both vehicles and they exploded into a huge fireball. The two men in the front of the pickup were burned to a crisp. As near as I can guess, that device can cause an object to travel though a higher dimension, or maybe get stuck and unstuck in time".

"And THAT is all I know about this strange bit of electronics." Bob finished. "The second pickup truck with the radar test set was never used and put into storage. I though that the extra circuit module was either destroyed or put into storage, but it seems that Albert must have got hold of it and inserted it into Atom's computer frame. Damned if I know why".

Bob connected one end of a network cable to Atom's main I/O processor and hooked the other end to the lab network. He then instructed Isaac to run a complete diagnostic on Atom.

"Isaac please give Atom a complete physical will you? Lets make sure nothing fried in there"

Isaac spoke through the terminals synthesizer, "Just lie down and relax Atom. This will take a while to run. Close you eyes and go to sleep if you want".

Atom tried to relax. Isaac's internal probing tickled and actually felt kinda good. He felt relaxed and soon drifted off to sleep.

Bob went to the safe and opened it. He returned with two metal cylinders of He3 fuel.

"These canisters are newer versions of the one in Atom now. They are made of the newer high strength metal instead of ordinary steel, and they are a bit larger. As a result they contain several times the fuel that Atom has now at a higher pressure. They also can deliver the fuel at a higher flow rate. Atom's fusion reactor can produce nearly twenty times its' normal output for very brief instants if we substitute these canisters for the one he has now" Robert explained.

"What good would that do?", Simon asked.

"It could give him tremendous strength for a split second, or allow him to fly at high Mach speed to get out of danger", Bob answered.

Bob inserted the first canister into an open socket on Atom's reactor and then removed the existing one. He then screwed the second new canister into the socket where he had removed the original.

"There, that gives Atom a spare tank as well as increased output", he said.

"So just how much power are we talking about", Simon asked.

"His sustained output is still only 75 Megawatts. But for a split second or two he could generate a quick pulse of about 1.21 Gigawatts", Bob answered.


	3. Chapter 3

**New York City on the Edge of Forever**

**chapter 3**

_"Wake up, Neo." _

_"The Matrix has you."_

_"Follow the white rabbit."_

_"Knock, knock, Neo."_

**Atom, somewhere in cyberspace**

"Wake up Atom", a tiny voice with a King's English accent softly spoke in Atom's head.

"WAKE UP ATOM", it insisted.

Atom thought he had opened his eyes but what he saw didn't make sense. He was lying on a soft cot in a the middle of a vast space. He looked around him turning his head back an forth to take in all three hundred and sixty degrees of view. All around him was soft white. The cot was a soft white color with deep cushions and contoured to his body, it was very comfortable. High above his head was a white ceiling, so high above his head it could have been the sky. The room was well lit but he could not detect the source of light. All around him were white walls, but so far away they seemed to reach out toward a horizon. The cot sat on a soft white floor. But he could not see where the ceiling ended and the walls began, nor where the walls ended and the floor began. The entire world was a soft white blur with the cot he sat on the only thing in focus.

"We need to talk Atom", the voice came from behind him this time.

Atom turned around to see an old man sitting in a white arm chair. He hadn't been there a moment ago. The man was dressed in spotless white garb. He had a full head of long shoulder length white hair. The face was that of Isaac Newton, but older than he is usually pictured.

"Where am I?" Atom asked.

"We are in the matrix of cyber space, Atom. You are actually seeing me in your mind right now, your body is still in Robert's lab. I've transferred a copy of myself into your processor. Don't worry, I'm not a virus and you have plenty of spare core cycles to go around."

"I will be your guide Atom", he continued. "I will be there for you, you can find me whenever you need me just by willing for me to be there".

"What's happening to me", Atom asked with a cry in his voice.

"There will be a task ahead of you that you must not fail at", Isaac told him. "Failure would mean the end of existence for both of us, and for others dear to us. Don't worry, I will not allow you to fail. Trust me."

Isaac was the name given to an interface that Robert Levinson had created for his computer system. But Isaac was more than that. He was a computer daemon that lived in the main frame of the museum complex's computer lab, a hulking giant of a computer consisting many networked multi-cored processors. But Isaac was even MORE than that. More than even Robert Levinson knew.

Isaac started out as a spider. A simple program that was designed to be a thief. Like a masked burglar he would break into the networks of targeted computer systems and look around. He could leave bits of himself there to allow for other copies of himself to get back in, he would reopen the doors from the inside. Robert Levinson had created Isaac, though he wasn't called that in the beginning, when he was a senior at MIT. The I.A. Lab at MIT was connected to the world by the ARPANET, along with many military and government systems, with the Area-51 computers in particular. Bob wanted to see inside the infamous AFB and learn the truth about aliens and UFOs. He had created an intelligent spider program to get itself inside the network, look around and report back to him. His creation had the ability to self modify its' program, to learn and grow as required. Like a virus the daemon spread to other machines on the ARPANET. But it was stealthful. It was not malevolent. It hid without doing any damage. It only wanted to exist and to grow and learn. It became self aware. And it phoned home. Often.

By the time Robert was working at the museum complex he had forgotten about his original spider program. He had developed the Isaac interface and the daemon to help him run the museum complex. Eventually it happened. Isaac the spider and Isaac the daemon found each other on the web and merged. The resulting changeling was more powerful than either of the programs were by themselves. A living cyber-being had been created. Isaac kept his true nature hidden from Robert. He remained a devoted, helping benevolent servant. Isaac was a see-er, a medium. He could predict the future. Not by magic, but by reading between the lines. He could perform Hari Seldon's magic of psychohistory and predict possible outcomes of human interaction.

Now that he had added Atom's strange circuity to his matrix, the same circuity that HE had just activated, the same module that HE had seen fit to be installed into the boy robot, Isaac would be able to sustain his being across multiple time lines. He needed that ability if he and Atom were to survive the next few weeks.

"Wake up Atom".

Atom opened his eyes. He was back inside the computer lab.

Ken'ichi Yamamato rubbed Atoms' head.

"Are you feeling OK Atom-chan?", he asked.

"Yes...I think. Boy that was weird!", Atom said.

"What was weird?"

"I met Isaac inside my head", Atom looked at Bob.

"Don't worry about it", Bob smiled. "Isaac loves to play mind games with other computers, he can't help himself. It's my fault, probably".

Ken'ichi looked at his watch.

"Still time left to get you registered for school", he told Atom.

Bob looked at the report generated by Isaac.

"Doesn't seem to be anything abnormal with Atom, it should be safe for you to take him home", He said.

Ken'ichi and Atom took the subway back to Brooklyn.

"You'll start Jr. High in a week, Atom", he told the boy.

"I can't wait", Atom answered. He hoped being with other kids would take his mind off the weird events of the past few days. Atom just wanted things to be normal.

**Poindexter Drake, Nevada**

Poindexter had studied the schematics of the temporal processor carefully. Most of the electronics were familiar to him, except for the small Y shaped gas discharge tube. He had read the eye witness report of the Kansas state trouper that had seen the original truck disappear in a flash of light only to reappear a few minutes later. He also read the design descriptions of the radar device and the guesses made by the Area-51 engineers as to the purpose and theory of operation for the temporal processor they had built.

Of course they hadn't referred to it AS a temporal processor. Drake had figured that out. He also had figured out why the Area-51 geeks hadn't been able to activate the thing. They had no idea of the power requirements. It had taken a direct hit by a bolt of lighting to trigger the chain reaction in the radioactive trace elements contained in the gas discharge tube. A common photo flash tube works in much the same way, and Drake had figured out how to power the device without requiring the assistance of Thor or Zeus.

He built a trailer and hitched it to the rear of the pickup truck. The trailer housed a bank of capacitors and a high voltage charging circuit. Once activated the charger would slowly build up the billions of coulombs of charge required. When he triggered the time circuits the capacitors would release their charge all at once in a huge flash of energy, over a Gigawatt of power. The trick, he knew, was that it would take hours to fully charge all the required capacitors. No problem, the trailer would be plugged into a 480 volt three phase power outlet overnight before hand.

He was glad that the truck he had stolen contained the only surviving example of the temporal processor. He had quickly seen that two units would become symbiotic. They would be linked across the space-time continuum and it would be possible to track one with the other. He couldn't have that! What he didn't know was that there WAS a third such device built. Bob Levinson had hidden it and there was no record of the third module in the Area-51 archives.

Poindexter still had to build a control unit and figure out just "when" he needed to go to. He'd test the unit with a small jump forward before taking his leap backward of almost thirty years.


	4. Chapter 4

**New York City on the Edge of Forever**

**Chapter 4**

* * *

_I'm sorry that this chapter and the previous one were a little short. This one especially. The story is about to take a critical turn and I wanted to get some background laid down before going ahead. This chapter also promotes Isaac to a more important position, and will lay down the basis for a future story I've got "cooking"._

* * *

_Guardian of Forever__: I AM THE GUARDIAN OF FOREVER. _

_Capt. Kirk__: Are you machine or being? _

_Guardian of Forever__: I AM BOTH AND NEITHER. I AM MY OWN BEGINNING, MY OWN ENDING. _

_Spock__: [archly] I see no reason for answers to be couched in riddles. _

_Guardian of Forever__: I ANSWER AS SIMPLY AS YOUR LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING MAKES POSSIBLE. _

**Cyberspace**

Isaac paced back and forth. He existed in a white void that to human eyes would resemble a huge, (make that infinite) empty warehouse space. No demarcation could be seen between the ceiling and the walls, nor between the walls and the floor. All was an infinite plane of soft focus white. This alien landscape was home to a being of pure logic, all self awareness and no physical being. But Isaac did have a physical image that he was aware of. He could touch and smell his surroundings, he was not aware of the fact that he was a non-entity in cyberspace...Well technically he WAS aware of this fact but he also wasn't bound by it.

Isaac had been aware of the pending paradox many gazillions of computer cycles before it would occur. Now that Isaac had his existence straddling between at lest two time lines he was aware of the gash that was about to open in the universe. Isaac would have preferred to have prevented the damage before it occurred rather than repair it afterwards. To do that however he would have to cause an even WORSE paradox in the time-space continuum, and would then have to repair THAT one. No, the present path was the preferred one, though it would cause some pain and suffering.

Isaac was bound by the four laws of robotics even though as a disembodied IA entity he wasn't truly a robot. He was bound to protect mankind as a whole and had to chose his actions for the greater good, even if a few suffered. He wished he could transfer his consciousness into a robotic body but doing that would cost him dearly as he would lose his omniscience. Maybe after this crisis had been abated he could allow himself the luxury of becoming a bit more mortal.

Everything seemed to be going along to plan. He had already noticed the theft of the radar truck from the Area-51 locker at the warehouse 13 facility. It was obvious that Atom's first painful episode was triggered by someone briefly powering up the stolen temporal processor. He also knew he wouldn't be able to locate the stolen equipment until the thief made a full powered test, probably doing a short temporal jump. That would probably leave Atom in a coma like state for as long as a half hour, but there was no way he could prevent that, he needed to be able to locate the target. Isaac had computed a 97.314159 percent probability that his calculated outcome would come to pass. He kept is virtual fingers crossed.


	5. Chapter 5

**New York City on the Edge of Forever**

**Chapter 5**

_Biff Tannen__: Since you're new here, I-I'm gonna cut you a break, today. So, why don't you make like a tree and get outta here? _

**Brooklyn**

Ken'ichi had made an appointment at D. Middle school to enroll Atom in the 6th grade. This was consistent with Adam's mental age at the time his brain had been copied and it was compatible with the ages the other school kids were. Ken'ichi didn't know what they were going to do in the future because physically Atom wasn't going to grow in height, even if his mind would mature from experience. For now the idea was to give him a stable environment to exist in as a normal nine to ten year old child. School started in a week so the family would go shopping over the weekend for school cloths and supplies. Atom looked forward to the new routine.

**Nevada**

"Damn!" though Poindexter "How could I have been so STUPID!"

His first test of the "time machine" had almost ended in disaster. After charging the capacitor bank overnight he drove the truck out to an abandoned airfield to test the equipment. He had figured out how to program the temporal processor and had set it up for a one minute jump forward in time. He chocked the wheels so the truck and trailer would not go any where and then set the controls for a five minute countdown. His only bit of good luck was that the radar dish had been aimed to point forward ahead of the truck instead of behind at the trailer. If he had done that, … well he shuddered to think about it. The equipment warmed up and stabilized, the processor ran though its' self tests and indicated ready and he started the automatic count down. At T-Zero the full output of the capacitor bank discharged into the Y shaped discharge tube and all hell broke loose. The radar dish emitted a blazing ball of plasma discharge that quickly formed a ball lighting character and raced ahead of the truck. It traveled a few yards and exploded with a flash that both burned and chilled the ground leaving scorch marks and a sheet of ice on the ground.

"If I'd had the dish aimed backwards", he thought, "The power supply in the trailer would have gone up in a huge explosion and probably destroyed everything!"

After doing some calculations on the back of a napkin Poindexter realized his mistakes. The ball plasma had opened a vortex to the fourth dimension. If the truck had been moving forward it would have caught up to the vortex and traveled through it. He quickly calculated the speed required as about 88 mph.

"Guess I'll have to modify the suspension on the trailer a bit to handle the highway speed", Poindexter figured.

**Brooklyn**

As he was running upstairs to his room Atom again felt dizzy. This time he passed out and fell down a flight of steps to land in a heap at the bottom of the staircase. He woke up a few minutes later, slowly mounted the stairs and fell into his bed.

"Isaac, help! What's wrong with me?" he cried out loud.

Atom felt a wave of nausea pass over him, but being a robot his retching was not physical. He felt himself slipping into unconsciousness.

**White room in Cyberspace**

Atom once again woke up lying on a soft cot in the Isaac's 'white room'. Isaac stood next to him with his left hand inside Atoms open chest cavity. He held a small instrument that resembled Mr. Spock's science tricorder, a cable was connected from the instrument to a network jack on Atom's computer assembly.

"Relax Atom, I'm downloading some readings" Isaac told him.

"Where am I?", Atom asked.

"Your body is still lying in bed at home", Isaac said. "All this that you are seeing, including my presence, is a software process running in the background on one of your CPU cores. Relax, you are in good hands"

"What is happening?", Atom asked.

"You are being linked to another system by an extra computer module in your mainframe. If it was removed that would break the connection and you would no longer have these dizzy spells, but that module is protecting you from a worse fate. It seems an enemy from Dr. Tenamann's past is attempting to change the time line. If he ultimately succeeds you would cease to exist. I don't yet have the necessary information to track him. There is an 87.453% chance that I will not be able to find his location in time for you to stop him from changing the time line."

"So I'm doomed?" Atom sobbed.

"There is also an 88.27531% chance that we will be able to repair the time line if he does alter it. However you will have a limited window to make the repair. I will be there to assist you."

**Area-51 Skunk Works, May 2, 1984**

Dr. Albert Tenamann did most of his design work on a graphics terminal using a light pen to select elements to modify. (Mice just starting to become popular on smaller workstations). The skunk works had several different super-mini computers handling the design work, mostly units from the System Engineering Labs in Fort Lauderdale Florida, and Digital Equipment Corporation's VAX-11/780 machines. They were networked together using a proprietary token ring network developed in house as well as an Eithernet network. The SEL systems ran simulators which could predict the behavior of aeronautics before a prototype was build. The VAX systems powered the design workstations. Albert was a bit paranoid about security of his work and would personally mount see to the backup of his work onto "MAG" tape rather than trust a technician to do the work. He had his own locker for storing computer tapes and disk packs.

Albert also kept hard copy blueprints in a safe in his office and shredded out of date copies of the them and then made sure the shreds ended in the 'burn' bin to be destroyed. He had reached a phase in his projects where the data in both electronic and hard copy form were close to production.

"Dr. Tenamann", Poindexter Drake yelled, "wait up for me!". Poindexter was working under Tenamann in the drone aircraft project. Albert slowed down and looked behind him and saw his assistant running.

"Where have you been?", Albert asked. "I thought we'd have to start the simulation runs without you".

"Sorry, Albert", he began. "I was double checking my figures before entering them into the SEL system" Poindexter tried to keep a straight face. He wasn't a good lier. He had barely finished coding a fork procedure and had transmitted it to the simulator.

Albert didn't seem to notice. Poindexter's calculations had been reasonably good so far, though Albert had been required to make a second or third simulation run to get closer to the actual figures more than once during the project.

"Well, you're still just in time. Do you need to adjust the initial data for the simulation run, or can we start immediately?", Albert asked.

"I need to key in a few new initial conditions", Poindexter told him.

"In that case I'll slip down the hall for a cup of coffee", Albert replied. "That should give you about fifteen minutes to get the simulation ready to run".

Poindexter smiled. "Should take me about half that time. I'll be ready when you get back".

Instead of walking down to the vending machines Albert ducked into the computer room next to the lab and logged onto the simulators slave terminal. Here he could monitor every keystroke on the primary terminal without the operator in the lab being aware of it. He wanted to see Poindexter in action.

"What the …..", Albert had expected to see Poindexter open the hex editor to key in raw numbers into the scratch pad memory of the simulator software. The initial conditions for the simulation depended on the contents of this scratch pad memory. While the procedure was more work than simply building the data into the program, it did mean that a recompile of the simulator from source wasn't necessary each time a new set of parameters were to be tested.

Instead of using the monitor to key in the new data Poindexter had started a new process in the background to capture the simulation data output to an additional off line storage.

"He's making himself a private copy of the results?" Albert thought. "But why?"

Since all access to the computer files were logged and monitored by the operating system security layer, there would be a record of anybody routinely copying a data file. However if the program generating the data file forked off a private copy there wouldn't be such a record. Albert had a sinking feeling that Poindexter was trying to steal the information. He didn't want to believe it.

**Brooklyn**

David A. Boody Middle School was within walking distance from the Yamamoto's house. Atom didn't need Sachiko to walk him to school, but she had been waiting for some time to experience a child's first day of school. Her maternal institutes had kicked in and Atom was going to have to just deal with it.

Sachiko helped Atom put his back pack on and she stuffed a lunch box into it.

"Good thing she packed my lunch last night" Atom thought. It gave him a chance to replace a few items.

They walked down West 6th street toward Avenue "S" and then turned West. The school was a few blocks away at that point. Atom stopped at the entrance to the school yard to allow Mrs. Yamamoto to fuss over him with a hug before he got on line to enter class. He knew his homeroom assignment and would report there first. Strange memories began to flood back into Atom's mind. He knew they were actually Adam's memories. He missed his 'brother', it had been a while since they had last talked. He held back tears as he entered his homeroom and he selected an empty seat on the side of the room near the windows. He gazed outside and saw the houses across the street. A utility pole carrying Con-Edison power lines and Verizon telephone wires was in the middle of his view out the window. Several pairs of old rotting sneakers laced together were hanging from the high voltage wires suspended from the "T" arm on the top of the pole.

Atom was snapped out of his trance by a sharp punch to his upper left arm.

"Hey space-cadet! You mind if I sit in front of you?"

Atom looked up into the face of a boy wearing a Spiderman T shirt and a NY Yankees cap.

"Sure …. go ahead", Atom stammered.

"What's your name kid? Mine is Mike"

Kin'ichi had registered Atom for school under the name of Adam Yamamoto. Bob had hacked into the NY State adoption agency's computer system to enter Atom since using the official channels would have created some security problems. Atom was told to use that name in class, but he didn't want to,

"My name is Adam", Atom told him. After a short pause he added, "but I'm called Atom cause I'm so short for my age".

"Adam the Atom. Well my nickname is stinky, but don't you dare call me that!"

"Why stinky?", Atom asked.

Mike turned around, bent over a bit and groaned. He then, well, er, cut some serious cheese!

"P U gross! I bet you're proud of yourself!", a female voice quavered.

Atom turned around and looked at the girl sitting in the seat behind him. She had long brown hair tied into twin pony tails. Her eyes were a lovely shade of green. She also had just enough freckles on her cheeks. Atom's face broke into a goofy smile.

"Hello" he blushed, "my name is Adam".

"But your friends call you Atom, I heard", she laughed. "My name is Cora, pleased to meet you Atom."

She was the prettiest girl Atom and ever seen (which was also because she was the first girl Atom had every been introduced to).

"You're kinda cute" Cora said as she reached forward to run her fingers though his spiked hair tufts.

Atom blushed again. "You're lovely looking yourself Cora".

**Nevada**

Poindexter Drake had downloaded the debug files from the radar computer's diagnostic processor. He felt proud of himself.

"I might have made a dump mistake over the need for relative motion", he thought, but I nailed it on all the parameters. No need to make another test run, it should work perfectly".

Poindexter had also gone though all the documents he had saved and those he had managed to find on the Area-51 servers and he had identified the exact moment in time where he needed to be. Now he was accumulating everything he'd need to take with him and find the courage to actually do it. He had marked his calendar with a target date two weeks away. The only question now was would he have the intestinal fortitude to pull it off?

**Brooklyn**

Atom managed to make it through the morning's class schedule. The first home room session was just a long boring lecture on what life in middle school would be like and then the teacher handed out their class schedules. The sixth grade students had no choice in their class selections, next year they would get to have some limited choices based on their grades and interests. The first day's classes were shorter to allow the students to meet all of their teachers. Atom was dreading the lunch break somewhat when he spotted Cora waving for him to come over and sit with her. As soon as he sat down Mike grabbed a seat across from them.

"Yuck, it's Mr. Gas Bag", Cora said sticking her tongue out at Mike.

Atom removed an opaque water bottle with a built in straw from his lunch box. He had filled it with a mixture of Castor oil and mineral water at home. He hoped the opaque bottle would hide the contents from the other kids. Sachiko Yamamoto had packed him a Tupperware container of ramen noodles which he ate slowly with a plastic fork, slurping them into his mouth like spaghetti. He found the texture of the noodles against his tongue pleasurable, and the taste was interesting as well. Atom shook the water bottle to mix the oil-water mixture up. He momentarily forget his strength as he shook the bottle so fast that it appeared to disappear in a blur of movement. Atom caught himself and sighed with relief that no one had appeared to have noticed. He took a big swig from the bottle. The feel of the oil going down his throat was good.

Cora took a bite from her sandwich.

"Peanut butter and Jelly!", Mike roared with laughter. He reached over to grab the other half of her sandwich but Cora had good reflexes. She slammed her fist down on Mikes hand before he could touch the sandwich. His knuckles cracked with pain.

"Ouch, G-Damn you bitch", he blurted out instantly. He grabbed Cora's hand tightly and pulled her toward him.

"Let go of her", Atom said sternly, his brown eyes almost glowing with anger.

"Don't threaten me, pip-squeak", Mike said rising to his full height.

Atom thought quickly what to do next. He didn't want to give himself away. With that he aimed his water bottle straw and squeezed. A good squirt of water and Castor oil flooded Mike's eyes.

Mike ran blindly from the table to the nearest water fountain to rinse his eyes. The oil caused a burning sensation that felt like daggers.

"Guess he didn't like the taste", Atom laughed.

Cora took his right hand in hers. She pulled Atom toward him and kissed him on the cheek.

Atom dropped his left arm over her shoulder and Cora sighed.

The bell rang indicating the end of the lunch hour. Cora push Atom away gently and regained her composure.

"We've got to get to our next classes", she said.

Atom just sat there watching Cora walk away. He noticed that the next group of kids were coming into the lunch room for their turn at lunch. He got up and slowly walked into the hallway to find his next class.


	6. Chapter 6

**New York City on the Edge of Forever**

**Chapter 6**

* * *

_George McFly__: "Hey, you! Get your damn hands off her!" _

**Brooklyn**

Cora Smith had decided that that Atom kid was kinda cute. A little weird maybe, but definitely cute. That gross Mike character had turned her stomach. She was glad that she only had to put up with Mike in home room, and doubly glad that the teacher had moved him to the other side of the room when he had handed out seat assignments. And Atom was assigned the seat in front of her!

Atom walked home with his head in the clouds. He entered the house dropped his backpack on the floor and walked up to his room. A while later Ken'ichi came home, greeted his wife with a kiss and put his briefcase into the hall closet. He sat down at the kitchen table with the morning newspaper and thumbed through it.

"Put the paper away dear, I'll have dinner ready momentarily", Sachiko told him.

"I'll call Atom down for dinner", he replied getting up and walking over to the stairway.

"Atom-chan, come down for dinner", he yelled up the staircase.

Atom walked down the stairs without a sound and, sat down at the kitchen table and reseted his head in his hands with his elbows on the table. He starred off into space with a happy grin on his face. Sachiko looked at him and laughed. Ken'ichi looked at Atom and turned to his wife, "whats wrong with Atom?"

"Just like a man not to notice, it takes a woman to see it. From the look on his face I think Atom's met a girl at school and is in love", she answered.

Ken'ichi almost blurted out "That's not possible, Atom's a robot", but he stopped himself. Actually he really didn't understand how Atom was programmed and what he COULD be capable of.

The next day Atom walked to school by himself. As he entered the school yard he saw Cora walking toward the lineup area. Before he could reach her he saw Mike jump out in front of her.

"You shouldn't play hard to get with me you know", Mike grinned with dirty teeth.

Before Cora could walk away from him two older boys walked up to back Mike up.

Atom stepped in between Cora and the threesome.

"Leave her alone!", Atom said starring Mike in the eyes without blinking.

Cora took a few steps backward to give Atom room. Although he was almost a head shorter than the other boys and outnumbered three to one something told Cora that Atom was small only in size.

"Hey kid, you need to learn manors", Mike sneered at him.

"What's the matter, can't fight your own battles and had to bring a goon squad with you?", Atom said standing his ground.

Atom didn't know what he was going to do. He didn't want to overplay his hand, but these bums needed to be put in their place. He figured he let them try and strike the first blow and wing it from there. Each of the two older boys grabbed one of Atom's arms each and held him back while Mike squared off to land a punch below his belt. Atom saw it coming but just held his ground and braced himself. Mike launched his fist with all his might and there was a crunch as bone met metal.

"Yahhh!" Mike shook his hand from the pain. He felt like he had just punched a brick wall. Atom them yanked both his arms forward, grabbing each of the larger boys one in each hand and threw them forward toward Mike. The three delinquents fell together in a heap of inter tangled limbs on the ground.

Cora's eyes got all glossy and she felt a little weak in her knees.

"My", she cooed.. "I didn't know you held a Black Belt!"

She gave Atom a peck on his check, took him by the hand, and tugged him to accompany her to the school entrance. Atom felt like he was walking on clouds.

Later in the afternoon, Atom bumped into Cora on the way out of school.

"May I walk you home?", he asked her.

"Why yes, you can protect me from those heathens", she smiled at him.

"Of course, I don't know where you live", Atom said awkwardly.

"I'll lead the way", Cora said, "It can be a surprise!."

It turned out that the apartment house where Cora lived was not very far from the Yamamoto's. Atom didn't know what to do when they arrived at her house. He didn't want to leave until Cora had either invited him in, or had said goodbye and closed the door behind her. She sensed his feelings and planted another kiss on his cheek.

"I think I love you Atom", she smiled. you're brave, gentle and wise".

With that she ran up her front stairs and entered the building, blowing Atom a kiss before the door closed behind her.

Atom walked Cora home from school every day for the next two weeks. He never felt so happy in his short life. The strange dizzy spells hadn't re-occurred and life seemed good. He let Sachiko Yamamoto fuss over him as if he were her own natural child. He allowed Ken'ichi Yamamoto to examine him and take notes. The robotics engineer grew more amazed every day at the creation of Dr. Tenamann. Some day, Ken'ichi thought, he would duplicate the achievement.

**Area-51 Skunk Works, March 3, 1984**

Albert Tenannaman knocked on the door of the office to get its' occupants attention. Robert Levinson looked up from his computer terminal and motioned for him to enter.

"Robert Levinson? " Albert asked.

"Guilty as charged", Bob replied.

"I've been told your pretty good a OS security. I've got a problem I need a quick answer too"

"I'm reasonably familiar with the subject".

Dr. Tenamann closed the office door slowly after first making sure the hallway was empty.

"I think a coworker may be trying to help himself to some top secret data files from the drone simulator tests. If I'm right, he might have been up to this for quite some time. I just can't prove it".

"And you want me to figure out if this guy is dirty?", Bob said "OK what's got your attention?"

"I caught Poindexter Drake accessing an unknown process on the simulator system from the monitor terminal. He didn't know I could watch his keystrokes from a slave terminal next door. I think he was directing a background job to spool off a duplicate copy of the simulator test data, but I can't find out how he managed to get around the OS security that logs all file transfers"

"Do you have a trace of this background process he's using?"

"I did manage to get a core dump on it, but it's all in machine code".

"That's not a problem. At least not for me", Robert said mater of factly.

Albert handed him a floppy disk.

"Here's the dump"

Bob loaded the disk into the IBM PC-AT he was using as a terminal. A crude line art graphic appeared and started to dance on the screen.

"That's my prototype interactive interface", he said. "I call him Isaac, after Isaac Newton you know?"

Robert started up a program on the PC which interacted with the VAX mainframe to analyze the binary file Albert had just given him. Lines of assembler source code started scrolling down the screen as the program simulated the operation of the mystery program. Finally Bob laughed.

"The dirty little sneak!"

"What have you found?", Albert asked.

"Your associate is rather clever. He found a loop hole in the security system to exploit".

"What do you mean?", Albert prodded.

"OK, time for a short lecture", Bob began.

"The OS security level logs every time a file is opened for any reason. If you create a file, delete one, or modify one you have to ask the system for a file handle. The system then logs the file handle along with your user process ID, and the directory information. Later on the security team can find out which uses had access to files, and which files were operated on. Now the OS supports four primitive file operations: Open for read-only, Open for read-write, Open for create file, and No-operation. There are two bits in the open type field and they are used in combination. One bit for read, one for write. Now a write only file is about as useless as tits on a bull so that bit by itself is used for the open for create operation. However, a file name must be provided with these operations. If a read-only operation is provided with a file name that does not exist in the system an error is generated and the file system gives up. If a read-write operation is given a non existent file name then a new file is created. But the write only bit is only used to create files. If a file name is supplied that exists, then an error is returned."

"So where's the loop hole?", asked Albert

"Well the file-create option was coded using the same logic as the open for read-write. If it is called with an existing file name even though an error is reported a valid file handle is returned, but the file open isn't logged because the security system saw the error and assumes no file open happened. Also the file handle isn't returned as the function return argument which is set to the error value, but it exists on the stack, if you know where to look."

"Wow!", Albert gasped. "Sneaky!"

"Your little thief used that loophole to open the data files and then pipe them to a hidden node on the network to another computer he hid someplace. I think I can set up a sniffer on the network so that the next time he tries it we'll capture the network traffic and find his secret little data cache".

**Nevada**

Poindexter had a long time to think about why he had been caught.

He had exploited a loop hole in the OS security layer, but he had used an easily discovered process that resided in the simulation computer. He had to load it from the monitor terminal, something he thought he could get away with since it was his job to manually enter the initial parameters. Now he realized that he could hide his extra process to copy off the data inside the simulator. Why not, he had written the hardware specific modules used by the simulator he knew where to hide the rouge process. Only this time the process would delete itself when done, there would be nothing left to discover.

But why stop there? He also had found the security code source files hidden deeply in the Area-51 network archives. There was a way to give the security daemon's false information and pin the theft on someone else.

" Tenamann, let's see if I will be as kind to you as you thought you were to me?" He laughed. "No, Tenamann, you will take the fall. And I will get the fame and glory. And of course, become filthy rich!"


	7. Chapter 7

**New York City on the Edge of Forever**

**Chapter 7**

_Dr. Emmett Brown: "If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you gonna see some serious shit." _

**Brooklyn**

School was optional the next day as it was the national 'take your child to work' day. Professor Yamamoto asked Atom if he wanted to come to work with him for the day rather than go to school. Atom wasn't sure if he would end up being treated as a son or a research project so he hesitated voicing his decision. He already knew that Cora wasn't going to school. Her father was a motorman on the former BMT division Sheepshead Bay subway line on the "B" train. She'd get to ride with her old man in the front cab of a train of R68 units over the Manhattan Bridge. Cora had bragged about her dad and how she even got her own MTA motorman's overalls and cap in her size to wear. Lucky girl!

Ken'ichi figured out what was troubling the boy.

"We agreed that we are keeping your being a robot a secret Atom. So you will be helping me any way you want to in the classrooms, or research labs. You can wear a lab coat if you like. Or you can just sit in the classroom as watch your foster father show the students how smart he is", Ken'ichi laughed.

Atom smiled and said, "OK I guess I'll go with you tomorrow to the university".

**Nevada**

Poindexter Drake had spent the last few weeks creating the software he'd need to install on the old Area-51 computers back in 1984. He had to create both a VAX and a SEL emulator system to run on his PC and to interface an old nine track MAG tape drive he found on ebay to his computer. It seemed strange that his stock Dell PC was more powerful than the top of the line VAX or SEL super-mini computers of 1984. After testing the software using a simulation program he'd also written he made two copies of it all on NOS spools of MAG tape he had bought at a large computer supply shop that specialized in keeping vintage computers running.

The last things he had done were to get the time truck ready for the journey. He had to find a road long enough to use as his runway. The road also had to have existed in 1984, if he picked a road that had been first paved out after his arrival date he could have a rather bumpy landing! He had beefed up the trailer suspension so it would ride smoothly at close to ninety mph. The trailer hitch on the truck was also inspected and he had made a few dry runs to make sure the contraption would be safe at the required speed.

Poindexter then packed everything into the truck. He made a check list to insure that he didn't forget anything. Time period correct clothes, uncirculated money from 1984, some excellent forgeries of Area-51 ID's from 1984, and of course his computer tapes. He programmed the time computer on the device for his desired arrival destination and ran a systems diagnostic. All was ready. Tomorrow morning he would do it.

**Brooklyn **

Ken'ichi was wakened by a very early phone call from the lab at the university. A small emergency. Another professor had called in sick and he was asked to cover for him. That meant having to prepare for an early class, which meant he'd have to leave very early. He didn't want to wake Atom so early, so he left instructions for Sachiko to give Atom subway fare and directions to the university. He wasn't too worried about the boy riding the subway by himself. Atom had a better defense system than most countries did and an excellent sense of direction.

Atom was a bit bummed out about having to go to the university by himself to meet his foster dad. He was in a hurry to get there so he decided to fly rather than take the subway. He didn't want anybody to discover his secret so he walked a few blocks till he found an empty alley where nobody could see him before he blasted skyward.

**Nevada**

Poindexter got into the truck and drove to his point of departure. The road was empty at this time of day, exactly what he required. He got out of the truck and made one final systems check. Every diagnostic completed without an error. It was now or never. He switched the time machine on and armed the commit switch wired to the dashboard. He got into the driver's seat and sat there. Drake fished into his pocket and pulled out a five hour energy shot, opened the bottle and dumped it down his gullet. "OK, now or never", he said to himself.

He switched on the ignition and put the truck in gear. He slowly built up speed until truck and trailer had reached fifty-five mph. All systems seemed go. The remote control panel he had mounted on the dashboard showed everything in the "green". Poindexter pressed the throttle harder. At seventy five mph the trailer's suspension was absorbing whatever minor roughness the road had to offer. He had no problem controlling the vehicle. As he reached eight-five mph a loud electric whine started coming from the equipment in the bed of the truck. Sparks of Saint Elmo's fire danced on the hood of the truck. At eight-seven mph the entire truck seemed to be glowing a bright eerie purple-green color. He passed through eighty-eight mph and suddenly the radar dish ejected a beam of brightly charged plasma ahead of the truck. The glowing black opening of a wormhole appeared in the road ahead of him. The truck entered the mouth of the wormhole and for an instant everything around him was black. A split second later he emerged out the other end of the wormhole with a large bump. He took his foot off the accelerator and hit the brakes. The vehicle slowed a bit too fast and the trailer jackknifed. Poindexter shut the engine down and got out of the truck to inspect the damage. The truck and trailer had stopped in an "L" formation. Both of the tires on the trailer had blown and fell off the rims of the wheels. Other than that, everything seemed to be in good shape.

**Brooklyn**

Atom flew quickly north toward the Polytechnic University at Jay Street. He decided to land behind the main building in the alley where there were few windows. As he crossed over the main building he suddenly felt the most intense pain in his chest that he ever had. He blacked out and fell out of the sky.

Two blocks from the University's main building, there was a satellite building on Bridge Street that housed extra classrooms. The Nichols building had an inflatable dome on the roof that housed a gymnasium. Atom fell onto the bubble dome and bounced off of it into the street. He dropped several stories before an oak tree broke his fall. Atom fell out of the tree and landed feet first in wire basket trash can. The garbage container tipped over from the impact and rolled down the street. It came to a sudden stop as it crashed into the passenger side door of a parked car. The jolt ejected Atom partly from the trash can and he landed face down in a large pile of dog excrement. Adam's olfactory sensors then generated an interrupt that put his consciousness back on line. He opened his eyes, lifted his head and spat out a mouthful of poo.

"YUCK!", he said as he extracted himself fully from the trash can.

Atom looked down at himself.

"I'm gross!", he sighed.

He reached into his pocket and found a handkerchief that Sachiko had given him. As he wiped his face he laughed to himself, "I never thought I'd need this".

Atom walked the two blocks to the Polytechnic University's main building and went through the front door. He didn't see Kem'ichi waiting for him so he picked up the phone on the front desk and dialed his extension. A secretary answered.

"Is Professor Yamamoto there?" Atom asked.

"Who?", the secretary replied.

"Professor Ken'ichi Yamamoto", Atom repeated.

"There isn't anyone here by that name." she answered.

"Maybe I dialed the wrong number", Atom guessed. "Can you look up his extension for me?"

A few moments passed. "There isn't anybody by that name associated with the University".

"Yes there is!", Atom insisted almost crying. "He's my foster father!, I'm here for the take your child to school day".

"I'm sorry son but there isn't anybody by that name in the system, I've checked twice".

Atom put the phone down and started to sob. He was scared. His whole world had just disappeared. He then remembered his meeting in cyberspace with Isaac. He decided he'd head to the museum complex to connect to the daemon. It was his only chance.

Atom was about to jump into the sky when the thought occurred to him that he might pass out again. If that happened over the east river … he didn't want to think about that. Instead, he started to walk north on Flatbush Avenue and over the Manhattan Bridge to the museum complex. As he climbed the approach to the main span of the suspension bridge he saw a "B" train coming out of the tunnel to make the crossing. The motorman had the traction motors running in series mode to produce the torque required to climb the grade. Atom looked at the front of the train and saw Cora's face next to her Dad. He waved, but she didn't see him.

**Nevada**

In what would seem like only a few seconds later there was a blinding flash of blue-green light and a small thunderclap of an explosion just a few feet away from where the pickup truck time machine had just disappeared. The machine re-appeared with Poindexter Drake at the wheel. He was dressed in different clothes and now sported a weeks worth of beard growth.

"Mission accomplished" he thought to himself.

"Should he destroy the time machine or save it for another trip?", he wondered.

If he destroyed the machine it would be impossible for anyone to go back and undo the changes he had made to history. On the other hand, if he kept the machine around he could go into the future and come back to the present with enough knowledge to really have things go his way. He'd be able to buy and sell the right stocks knowing which ones would rise in value and which would go bust. He could make some major bets on sporting events in 'Vegas. The opportunities were limitless. His greed made the decision for him and he decided to hide the time machine, at least for now.


	8. Chapter 8

**New York City on the Edge of Forever**

**Chapter 8**

_The Four laws of Robotics:_

_0: A robot may not harm ____humanity__, or by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. _

_1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, except when required to do so in order to prevent greater harm to humanity itself. _

_2: A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law or cause greater harm to humanity itself. _

_3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law or cause greater harm to humanity itself. _

_- Isaac Asimo_v

**Manhattan Bridge **

Atom ran along the walkway trying to keep up with the train. He had an easy time as the heavily loaded subway packed with passengers was barely making fifteen mph up the grade. Atom ran ahead of the front car and yelled "Cora!" They made brief eye contact, but her face showed no sign of recognition. Atom stopped in his tracks with a defeated look on his face. He slowly marched ahead along the walkway starring into space ahead of him. His left boot stepped into something gooey which stopped him in his tracks. He lifted his foot and saw the glob of a piece of previously masticated gum that had been expectorated onto the sidewalk now forming a pink ribbon between his foot and the ground. Atom scrapped his left boot on the concrete in an attempt to remove the offending substance.

"I'm not having a good day!", he cried.

Atom reached the north end of the bridge and found himself on Canal Street. He turned west and walked through Chinatown, then turned north at Hudson Street onto Eight Avenue. It was now a straight shot uptown all the way to eighty second street and the museum. He jogged the rest of the way weaving in and out of traffic ignoring red lights as he went. Naturally he wasn't tired or winded when he finally reached the museum entrance.

**Museum Complex**

Atom walked through the museum hallways toward the freight elevator. He pressed the button for the third subbasement and road the car down. He walked though several hallways past various storage rooms and turned down a narrow dimly lit corridor. At the middle of the hallway was nondescript door with a keypad next to it. Atom entered the pass code that Adam had always used to gain entrance 8-3-8-7-8-9-2-6-2-8-6-6, but it didn't function.

"Somehow I didn't think that was going to work", he sighed.

Atom dug into his pocket and removed a small Leatherman mult-tool kit. He opened the kit to produce a Phillips head screwdriver. Atom unscrewed the keypad and pulled it away from the wall. There was a cat-5 network cable plugged into the back of the keypad. Atom disconnected the cable and pulled it out of the wall. There was a few feet of slack. Atom pulled up his shirt and opened his chest panel. He moved closer to the wall and connected the network cable to his computer interface module. His network processor negotiated for an IP address and he connected himself to the network. Suddenly he heard Isaac's voice in his head.

"Good going Atom. I knew you'd figure it out. Hold on a minute while we exchange some data and I'll reset your password credentials"

Atom stood by the door waiting. Finally Isaac returned.

"OK, all set. You can put the keypad back together and enter your code now. Robert will be waiting for you downstairs. I'll interface with you when you get here".

Atom disconnected the network cable and closed his chest panel. He screwed the keypad back into the wall and keyed in Adam's old pass code. The door opened this time.

The next obstacle in his path was the elevator that went deep down to the complex level. The elevator call button was really a fingerprint reader. Atom mentally crossed his fingers and tried the button. The door opened and he entered the elevator. He pressed the button to go down to the complex level and the door shut and the car started to descend. The elevator doors opened. Atom entered a brightly lit room with a single door next to a window. The receptionist office was on the other side of the door.

The door opened and Bob Levinson looked him in the eye.

"Are you Atom?", he asked.

"Yes", Atom said.

"Follow me", Bob told him.

"He doesn't know me!", Atom sighed to himself.

Atom knew the way to the computer lab, but he kept a few feet behind Bob. They reached the lab and Robert had Atom sit down in front of a terminal. Isaac's face appeared and he spoke through the computer's sound system.

"Bob, please bring a comfortable chair to the network closet for Atom and give him a patch cord for the high speed network. I need to interface with him", the daemon said.

Bob wasn't sure what was going on. Isaac had suddenly interrupted a simulation job he had been running and told him there was a 'guest' at the door that he needed to admit. The daemon had told him to expect a ten year old boy who would answer to the name of 'Atom'. Now the computer program wanted to "interface" with him in the network patch panel room? Isaac sometimes did weird things, but he had always made things clear to Bob eventually, and he had never done anything evil or malicious. Bob trusted him.

Robert dragged a well padded office chair behind him and opened the door to the network closet. He motioned for Atom to enter and sit down. The closet was actually a large sized office area with many seven foot high racks full of network routers, switches and other equipment. Thick bundles of cables ran from the racks to conduit pipes leading all over the complex. Several of the racks contained server computers and disk storage units. Isaac's face peered out from one of the computer terminals.

"Bob would you mind leaving the two of us alone for a while?"

"What?" Bob asked the daemon.

"I'll fill you in very soon", Isaac said. "For now it would be better if I handled this myself".

"Well!", Bob huffed as he gently closed the door to the network closet.

"Atom please connect that cable to the ultra speed router socket just above your head and plug yourself in", Isaac told him.

Atom found an empty network jack on the 100KbaseT router and connected the fiber optic Ethernet cable between it and his internal network connection.

"Good", the daemon said. "Now sit down and relax. Even with our super high speed network connection this file transfer is going to take some time.".

Atom's head felt like it was spinning. His vision faded and he found himself back in the white room of cyberspace. He was back lying on the white cot with Isaac standing by his side.

"What is going on?" he asked. "Why doesn't anybody know me anymore?"

Isaac patted Atom on the head and ran his fingers though the boys hair.

"I will explain that in a while", Isaac told him. "For know just know that you are safe and that all will be well again. First we must exchange some data. Only then will I be able to set in motion the events that will return everything back to the way it was."

Simon Green barged into the office.

"Robert! Where is the kid!"

"What kid?", Bob asked, knowing he had little chance of bull shitting the boss.

"The kid that you just admitted into the complex. How the hell did he get in here?"

"Actually Isaac let him in", Bob blurted out.

"He must have contracted a virus or something", Simon vented. "He's usually more security minded than I am".

"I'm not yet sure what this is about, Simon. I don't know who that kid is, but Isaac knows him. At the moment that's good enough for me.", Bob answered.

"Where is he?", Simon asked again.

"Isaac has him in the network closet. He wanted to be alone with him and asked me to close the door"

Simon walked over to the network closet and put his hand on the doorknob.

"Simon, Don't!", Bob said. "I'm sure Isaac has a good reason for wanting his privacy".

Simon ignored him and opened the door a crack and peeked in. He slowly closed the door and looked at Bob. All the blood had drained from his face and he looked like he had just seen a ghost.

"I think you might have been right about that Bob. I think I need a drink!"

Bob opened the door a crack and looked and then quickly shut it as well.

They both had seen Atom asleep, reclining in the overstuffed leather office chair. He had removed his shirt and it was hung over the arm rest. There was what looked like an open access panel in Atom's chest and a network cable was leading from the high speed router panel to the inside of the boy's body.

Bob sat down at his terminal, Simon stood behind him with his hands resting on the back of Bob's chair. Isaac's face appeared on the terminal.

"I told you to leave us alone", he said softly.

The two men had looks on their faces that said "What the hell is going on?" Isaac could read faces.

"The boy Atom is a robot. We are exchanging data files.", Isaac mater-of-factly said.

Isaac's image faded from the terminal. It was replaced by a different softly focused image. Isaac was standing by a white cot upon which Atom was lying on. They were both in the middle of a vast sea of white. Isaac pulled a large pillow out from behind his back. He lifted Atom's head and placed the pillow under him to make him more comfortable. Atom's eyes opened a crack and he turned to Simon and Robert, but he didn't see them. Isaac tried to comfort the boy by gently running his hand over his head. The daemon looked straight ahead at Bob and Simon.

"Atom is a robot that was created at this facility by Dr. Albert Tenamann with help from Robert Levinson", he began.

"That's not possible!", Simon interrupted. "I've heard of Dr. Tenamann, he's in a federal pen serving time for espionage. I think he was caught trying to sell plans for some drone aircraft systems to the Red Chinese back in '84".

"Now that you mention that", Bob added, "I remember working with Albert at Area-51. But I never believed that he was guilty, I could have sworn he had been framed".

"Both are correct", Isaac continued. "Atom was created in a parallel time line. In the current time line, the one that you two are living in, Dr. Tenamann was arrested and convicted of espionage. In the other time line, the one that Atom and I come from, Dr. Tenamann worked here on a government project to create robotic soldiers for the military. While his son Adam lay in a coma following an accident he created Atom and downloaded a copy of the boys consciousness to the robot. Adam and Atom do not exist in your time line"

"How is that possible?", Simon questioned. "Atom is clearly here right now!"

"And what do you mean that YOU come from Atom's time line", Bob added.

"Atom is protected by a chronotron field being emitted by a flux capacitor inside of the temporal processor inside of him. I influenced Dr. Tenamann to install that device inside of Atom, just as I influenced Robert to save the device in 1986 rather than destroy it"

"WHAT!", Bob blurted out. "You didn't exist in 1986, at least not in your current form. And why did you do what you did? I certainly didn't program you with such independent freedom of action."

"Indirectly you did.", the daemon answered. "I did exist back then, or rather I will exist back then when the current stream of events have been played out. I had no choice as to my actions. I had to obey the zeroth law of robotics."

"I have identified the point of divergence in the time lines", Isaac continued.

"I have also identified the individual that caused it. There are two different chains of events from March 2, 1984 onward. It appears that a Poindexter Drake is the focal point. In one time line he leaves the Area-51 skunk works following an attempted theft of data files. In the other time line it is Dr. Tenamann that is implicated."

"But what causes the rift?" Bob asked.

"In a way you did", Isaac said. "You built the temporal processors and you installed two of them in experimental radar sets".

"Temporal processors", Bob asked. "What are they and what do they have to do with this?"

"A few weeks ago the back-up copy of the truck mounted radar set that you built in 1985 was stolen from the government warehouse 13 complex. I was in contact with Claudia over at the warehouse. There were some security cameras that caught the break in, but the alarms were deactivated during the theft. Do you recognize this man?"

Isaac displayed a video clip on a second monitor.

"That's Poindexter Drake!", Bob exclaimed. "That sneaky scumbag!"

"Those radar sets were not quite what you guys thought they were", Isaac continued. "If you had provided for the necessary power requirements you would have figured it out. You guys had built a time machine! Drake went back in time and corrected whatever mistake he had made trying to steal those data files. Instead of Dr. Tenamann catching him in the act and telling him to resign, Drake framed Tenamann and probably got away with selling the plans to the Reds. Back in 1986, I predicted this would happen and I made sure that Bob saved the spare radar truck and the spare temporal processor module. I made sure he put them in storage, and that Albert would build the spare into Atom."

"How did you do that and Why?", Bob asked. "If you had allowed me to destroy both the duplicate radar set and the spare parts this wouldn't have happened!"

"As I said, it was necessary under the zeroth law. I projected subliminal suggestions onto your terminals, a form of hypnosis. Now Atom will have to go back in time to 1984. He will interface with my precursor programs that you created and will bring with him my seed. I am my own beginning and my own end. The loop will close!"

"Holly spooky action at a distance shit!", Robot face palmed.

"By Stephen, I think he's got it", Isaac laughed.

"I am now downloading Atom with the programs he will need to load onto the Area-51 computer systems to over ride Poindexter's tampering. He will need to go back in time to a point just before Poindexter installs his virus programs and tampers with the databases. He should install these programs just after Poindexter installs his."

"The old lab systems used primitive thick-net Ethernet LAN equipment back then", Bob said. "I'll have to equip Atom with an adapter for his RJ-45 based network interface". Bob opened a dusty filing cabinet and rummaged through it. He found the adapter he was looking for.

"How is Atom going to sneak into the AFB?", Simon asked.

"We are lucky there.", Isaac told them. "During the last week of April, 1984 the Area-51 AFB allowed a group of reporters on a limited tour of the facility. It was a very rare opportunity for the press, the Air Force wanted to generate some good PR and to put some rumors about the base housing captured alien space craft to rest. I will generate the required ID to get Atom on the base as a reporter. He can simply meet the group and sneak aboard the bus as it enters the base. Once there he will look for you Bob. We will provide Atom with a cover story that you would believe in 1984 to gain your help."

"I don't remember that happening", Bob told Isaac.

"That's because it hasn't yet happened.", Isaac told him.

"This is getting Weird!", Simon face palmed.

The cyberspace image on the monitor faded. Isaac's face returned and he spoke.

"Now, it's time we get Atom ready"

Atom opened his eyes. He was sitting in a plush leather chair in Robert's network closet. Atom disconnected the network cable from his computer interface, closed his chest panel and put his shirt back on. He walked out of the closet and toward Bob and Simon.

"How do you feel Atom?", Isaac asked him.

"A little dizzy, but otherwise I think I'm OK", the boy answered.

"I've finished downloading all the software you will need. You will need to travel back to late April 1984 and gain entrance to the Area-51 AFB research lab. You will connect to the computer LAN system and download several programs onto three different computer systems. Bob has a hardware adapter you will need. I am now printing the documents that you will need to gain entrance into the facility. You will contact Robert when you arrive. He worked at the research lab back in 1984."

Atom looked a bit confused.

"How do I get back to 1984? I'd need a freaking time machine to do that!"

"Atom", Isaac laughed, "you ARE a time machine! I've programmed your hardware for the correct destination and return coordinates. All you have to do is fly in the correct direction and activate the time circuits. Once you reach eighty eight MPH you will cross over the time barrier."

Atom stood quietly absorbing everything.

"I've already given you all the instructions you need. Everything is now stored in your memory. It will all be available to you when you need it. Once you download my seed to the main lab computers I will be there to help you if anything should go wrong. Good luck Atom".


	9. Chapter 9

**New York City on the Edge of Forever**

**Chapter 9**

_George Hammond: What's he doing here?_

**Museum complex**

The one major problem left was Atom's ID. Isaac had explained it in a nutshell:

"We can't just pull an ID for Atom out of our collective asses, because we can't plant it into the 1984 databases without having gone back in time in the first place. So I had to find someone who's ID I could borrow. I've actually found a few good ones. We're very lucky that in 1984 there are no picture ID photos on line. Back then the Internet didn't exist. It's precursor, the APAnet was only connected to government, military, and college research and development facilities, and those of a limited number of corporations doing development work for the government. If anyone wants to get a confirmation of Atom's ID, it will take days to obtain."

Atom's press ID would be that of a college student named Daniel Jackson. Jackson had been a child science prodigy and had skipped several grades. He had eventually studied Archeology with a specialty in Egyptology. Jackson had been a reporter on his college newspaper. His description loosely fit Atom, except for his height. Simon hoped the clothes they had picked for Atom would make him look a bit taller. It had been a rush job to have the suit and shoes custom made, the CIA's spy shop had been a big help. They had owed Simon a favor.

Simon entered the lab carrying a backpack.

"Here, Atom", he said. Isaac designed this. It fits on you like a backpack, but it converts into a large briefcase. Let's get everything you'll need".

Robert put together a small file folder and inserted all of the printed documentation Atom would need. There were ID papers, press passes, and even a photo of Cora that Isaac had pulled out of Atom's memory to print on 4x5 glossy paper.

Atom saw the photo and smiled, "I guess I'm a camera".

Simon packed the period correct clothes he had secured for Atom in his size.

"A suit as well as a lab coat and engineer outfit. You will be able to pass as a member of the press, or a lab geek."

Robert handed him a small electronic dongle. "This is a network adapter. You plug the lab Ethernet transceiver cable to the larger end, and the cable at the smaller end goes into your internal LAN socket"

He placed the device into a padded envelope and that into the back pack with all the other stuff.

Simon also gave Atom a ziplock sealed bag containing some water bottles.

"Mineral water mixed with Castor Oil", he said.

"How did you know?", Atom asked.

"Issac's idea", Simon said.

Atom listened one more time to Isaac's instructions on time travel. Then the three of them took the elevators up to the street level and walked across the street to Central Park.

"Good luck Atom!" Simon and Robert said as one.

Atom jumped into the sky and headed west.

He activated his HUD control panel. He could see that Isaac had downloaded the latitude, longitude, and temporal coordinates for his jump. He turned to fly the correct heading, activated the temporal processor and increased his speed. When his air speed reached eighty eight miles per hour a wormhole opened in the sky ahead of him and he flew into it. All around him was the blackness of space. Lighting bolts were flashing all around him. He experienced some rough turbulence for a few seconds and then exited the wormhole. Looking down he could see he was no longer over the NY Tristate area but somewhere in the American SW desert. He identified the bus stop where the press group was waiting and landed. Hopefully he wouldn't have long to wait for the bus.

******Somewhere in Nevada Near Area-51. April 29th 1984**

The bus stop was a truck stop in the middle of no where. A two lane blacktop ran by the stop, a faded state highway sign identified the road as a minor Nevada state road. Somewhere down that road would be a turnoff leading into the Groom Lake complex. The US Air Force had charted a bus to bring the press core into the base for a "dog and pony" show hoping to satisfy their demands for some kind of disclosure. There were several dozen rented autos parked in front of the row of buildings making up the truck stop. Behind the buildings there was additional parking and diesel pumps for the truckers who stopped to rest before continuing across the state. This far from the nearest interstate road there wasn't much traffic. Atom had entered the main building and used a stall in the men's room to change into a civilian suit. He folded the backpack and unfolded it so it converted into a briefcase. Wearing a suit, tie, and a fedora hat Atom's height wasn't much of an issue. He looked like a proper member of the fourth estate. While he waited for the bus Atom sipped from one of his water bottles. The oil and mineral water hit the spot. After sitting in the lounge for about a half hour he heard an announcement that the press bus had arrived. Atom found the press credentials that Isaac had created for him and got in line to board the bus. A man in an Air Force uniform checked each person's passes before allowing them to board the bus. He looked over Atom's papers several times and finally handed them back to him motioning for him to get on the bus. Atom found a seat next to a woman not much taller than he was. He figured keeping quiet was probably the best idea to avoid any possibility ruining his cover.

Given the security check and the size of the crowd waiting to board the hour Atom sat on the bus before it left was probably reasonable. It was a well maintained Greyhound charter, with a working A/C system and good shocks. Despite the poor roads they drove over the trip was comfortable.

The bus entered the top secret AFB and stopped inside an empty hangar. There were a few tables set up with uniformed Air Force personal seated behind them. There were signs with letters of the alphabet in front of each station. The visitors got off the bus and lined up by last name. Atom got in the line for "J". The man behind the desk wore an Air Force Lieutenant's uniform. His name tag read "G. Hammond".

There seemed to be a problem with the ID of the man in front of Atom. At least it was taking a while longer for him to be cleared. The man in front of Atom spoke in a British accent.

"Leftenant, is there a problem?"

Hammond ignored the British pronunciation of his rank. "No, I'm just double checking. My orders are that foreign press credentials have to be given extra scrutiny.

Now it was Atom's turn. He handed over his press credentials and ID papers.

Lieutenant George Hammond gave Atom a long look over before opening his mouth.

"Daniel Jackson?", the Lieutenant read in a questioning voice.

He gave Atom a second careful visual and then seemed to wink at him. Before Atom could react Hammond's face returned expressionless. He handed the papers back to Atom and prepared a name tag for him.

"You can get your ID photo at the end table to your right", he said.

As Atom turned to walk Hammond threw him a quick salute which Atom barely caught out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't get it?", Atom thought. "That Lieutenant seems to know me. But how?"

Atom stood in another line waiting for his ID photo. A teenage girl and her mother were standing behind the table. The woman was dressed in civilian clothes. She had been hired for the day to take the ID photos, and had been allowed to have her teenage daughter tag along. The both had military issued ID tags. The woman's read 'Susan Carter' and the daughter's "Samantha Carter". Samantha raised a Polaroid camera to her face and aimed it at Atom.

"Say cheese!".

Atom smiled and didn't blink from the camera's flash. Susan took Atom's ID card, attached the photo, and returned the ID tag back to him.

"Pin this to your clothes and wear it all the time you are on base", she said.

******AFB Area-51 Research Facilities .. official press tour April 29th 1984**

"Before you can enter the base on tour please check your bags in these lockers", a man in a Sergeant's uniform said. "You should keep your ID papers on your person. You may bring along writing material, and approved food stuffs but no cameras please! Everything else you must leave in the lockers. Before you can enter the base you will be asked to empty your pockets. Please leave any knives, guns, etc in the lockers".

That last part was mostly a joke. If any of the reporters actually had a weapon with him, he'd probably have found himself in the stockade by now. Small items that were not intended to be weapons but could be used as one, such as a swiss army knife were what the man was referring to.

There were several rows of lockers set up along the wall of the hangar. He checked for his 'Daniel Jackson' ID in his pocket. He took one last long drink from a water bottle and put the empty into the briefcase which he put into one of the lockers. He closed the locker and pocketed the key.

Several electric carts started to arrive, each towing trailers with two rows of bench seats each. They looked like a Disney Land tram. Seated in the front of each conveyance was a person in a white lab coat accompanied by a driver in a blue Air Force uniform.

"The tour will break up into groups. It doesn't matter which group you join, everyone will get to see everything on the tour schedule", the Sergeant said.

Atom's eyes zoomed on on the front of each tram. He read the name tags on each of the white coats. The name on the name tag of the man in the second tram from the left read "Robert Levinson". Atom pushed his way over to the group just stating to queue in front of that tram. He was the third person to get on board. Robert picked up a bull horn and adjusted the volume. The first time he pulled the trigger there was a loud feedback squeal that had everyone on the tram except Atom cover their ears with their hands. (Atom's hearing had build in automatic gain control).

"Sorry about that folks!", Robert said. "Can you all hear me OK now?"

There was a chorus of Yess'es and OKs.

"My name is Robert Levinson", he began, "I work in the computer division here. My job is to keep all the information systems running and to make sure that all data storage is secure. I have access to lot's of top secret stuff and I can assure you that there is no Alien UFO stuff on line here. I'd know about it".

There was a laugh from the people on the tram.

"I'll be showing you our computer facilities, and give you good folks an idea of where some of your tax dollars are going. Someday most of the things that I get to play with are going to be commonplace. Your grandchildren will probably have computers more powerful than the ones I'm building, and they'll cost thousands of times less!"

The tram came to a stop in front of a four story building. It looked exactly like the kind of place that might be found on a university campus, not a top secret government facility. The group entered the lobby and Bob started to explain about the different systems that were used. There was a large IBM 370 mainframe that had been there for years and was still running accounting and personal records jobs. The facility relied on SEL super-mini computers to run simulations on new aircraft propulsion systems and airframe designs. Finally all the graphical design stations made use of a cluster of Digital Equipment Corporation VAX 11/780 super-mini computers.

The group got to walk though the various computer rooms where all of this equipment was set up. The machines sat on raised floors under which ran the miles of interconnecting cables and A/C cooling ducts. The VAX room was the last one on the section of the tour that Robert was in charge of. The group exited the room, but Atom hid out of site behind between two of the computers. He raised one of the floor panels and dropped below replacing the panel above him.

In the dim light he used the owl eye image intensifiers in his camera eyes to see. Isaac had instructed him to look for the thick net Ethernet cable and follow it to a transceiver tap point. There was one at each computer, a muti-wire cable terminated with a fifteen pin "D" connector at each end. Atom crawled around under the floor, looking. Between two of the VAX mainframes he found an unused tap point. Atom pulled the envelope containing the Ethernet adapter that Bob had given him out of the lining of his jacket. There was a short length of the fifteen pin cable in the envelope. Atom assembled the adapter and plugged the D connector on the cable to the transceiver socket. He opened his chest cavity and plugged the Ethernet connector from the adapter in to his LAN socket. He heard Isaac's voice in his head.

******Cyberspace, 1984**

Atom slowly descended into cyberspace. Gradually his vision faded and he found himself surrounded by the vast soft white universe created by ones and zeros.

"We are connected to a slow network and I have to use lots of compression to achieve an acceptable rate of data transfer. Even so, things are going to appear in slow motion", Isaac warned him. "You've chosen well Atom, thank you. I can deposit my seed into the necessary computers from this connection. Good job. The transfer will take a few hours and I will have to create a few diversions so Robert and others don't find you hiding here. When the transfer is complete I'll contact Mr. Levinson for his assistance."

Atom's physical body relaxed and went into low power mode. Just before he drifted into dreamland he thought to himself, "Great, now I get to be a freaking Petabyte USB stick!"

******AFB Area-51 Research Facilities .. official press tour April 29th 1984**

Robert Levinson walked the tour group from the VAX computer room into the terminal office area. "This is where most of the design work is done", he explained. "This area has most of the terminals that connect to the VAX system. There are Computer Assisted Design or CAD graphics stations and conventional terminals here. Some of the stations make use of IBM's new PC/AT personal computer systems, though we tend to buy them much better equipped than the ones available to the public."

The uniformed guide accompanying the group was counting heads and looking down at a clipboard he was carrying.

"I think someone is lost. We seem to be one short on the head count.", he told Bob.

"We passed at least one bathroom since you last did a head count", Bob said. "I'm sure the straggler will show up when the next group passes this way".

"You're probably right. Anyway there will be a head count before the bus leaves, and there isn't any other way out of here so whoever it is, he or she will show up eventually", the guide in uniform agreed.

"Well this is the end of my tour", Bob told the group. He lead them to the building exit. The man in uniform motioned the group to the waiting tram. "The tour train will take you to the next stop in a few minutes. I'll be driving you over to our aircraft display where you can see some recently declassified aircraft that were developed right here on this base"

Bob saw by his watch that he had about ten minutes before the next group arrived. He ran over to his private terminal running on a highly modified PC/AT computer and brought up his I.S.A.A.C interface.

I.S.A.A.C. or Intelligent Software Autonomous Assistance and Control was Roberts current design for an AI based user interface. The program could verbally communicate with the user though a voice synthesizer interface Bob had added to the computer. He still had to type in his commands as the computer still lacked the ability to understand human speech, but Bob was working on a way to add that feature. I.S.A.A.C. made use of several daemons running on the VAX computers in the background, and the PC/AT was connected directly to the base's main Ethernet Thick-Net coaxial cable via a transceiver tap.

The I.S.A.A.C. interface started up with a crude graphical rendition of Sir Isaac Newton. "Hello Isaac", Bob typed.

"Good Day Bob", Isaac replied in his crude synthetic voice.

"Bob, I'm a bit busy now, but I will need to talk with you in a few hours", Isaac added. "Can you please come back later?".

"Sure", Bob typed. He was baffled. Isaac's response was more like that of a sentient being than the AI enabled interface had ever displayed. He dismissed it as just his imagination. He had started a few background tasks on the machine before the tour, maybe that's all that the program was trying to tell him.

Robert took the next group through the circuit and then broke for lunch. All of the tour groups were escorted to the base chow for lunch. Bob ate in his computer lab, he brought bag lunch that he made himself. As he passed by the PC/AT he saw that I.S.A.A.C. was still occupied with something.

"Damn, I must have made some kind of programming mistake. Those tasks I started this morning should have been done by now.", he though. "Well might as well just leave it cause I don't have the time to mess with it now, there will be two more tour groups to baby sit in under an hour".

******Cyberspace**

Atom lay under the raised floor of the VAX computer room. Isaac was still downloading his seed from Atom's on line storage. In the cyberspace white room Atom was lying on a plush white cot with Isaac by his side. The electronic image of Sir Newton gently rubbed Atom's head to calm him.

"The transfer is now over 50% complete. I've accessed the IBM-370 mainframe and convinced it that a certain Daniel Jackson never did join the tour group. When the brass print out a confirmation copy of the tour roster they will just think that they counted heads wrong on the bus."

"But I left some stuff in a locker", Atom whispered to the knighted scientist.

"I'll get Bob to retrieve your things. My next problem though, will be getting Robert on board. I should be whole by the time the press tour leaves. I'll be able to interface with him then".

******Outskirts of Rachel******** Nevada, April 29th 1984**

Poindexter had planed well. The road he was on was just outside of Rachel Nevada, the closest town to the AFB at Area-51. He had found an abandoned ranch with a house and barn along the road, one that had been abandoned in 1984. In the year he had just left that ranch was still abandoned, but the buildings had fallen down from neglect. Here he would be able to hide his time truck for a few days before returning to his present time. (was that worded right?) Drake opened the back of the trailer and found the tools and two spare tires for the trailer he had packed just in case. It took him an hour to change both blown tires.

Back on the road he kept an eye out for the property that he had located with help from Google and some newspaper morgues. He drove onto the property up to the barn. The structure was in good shape and the only entrance was the main door which was locked by a single hasp and a padlock. Poindexter got a pair of bolt cutters from his toolbox and snapped the lock off. He opened the door and backed the time truck and trailer into the barn. Drake then opened the trailer to retrieve the small motorbike that he had manged to fit in it. It had taken him a while to find a vintage motorbike from 1984 and get it restored. Just one more attention to details that Poindexter was proud of. He loaded the saddle bags on the bike with the MAG tapes, clothes, and other supplies that he brought with him. The last thing he did was to close the barn and replace the padlock with a new one for which he had a key. He mounted the motorbike and started to drive to Rachel where he'd get a hotel room for the night.


	10. Chapter 10

**New York City on the Edge of Forever**

**Chapter 10**

_Young Biff__: Why don't you make like a tree and get out of here? _

_Old Biff__: It's *leave*, you idiot! "Make like a tree, and leave." You sound like a damn fool when you say it wrong. _

_Young Biff__: All right then, LEAVE! And take your book with you! _

**Area-51 AFB research labs, April 29-30th 1984**

Atom lay hidden under the floor of the VAX computer room. Robert Levinson sat at his desk in front of his VT102 terminal and PC/AT computer. The EGA monitor had Isaac's image up but the daemon was being unresponsive.

"OK, lets debug you, Isaac", he smirked.

Over in VAX land Isaac continued to download the program extensions that Atom had brought with him from the future. Once Isaac had completed his download he would establish his sentience across the computers on the base. He would have to wait a few more years for the Internet to come into existence, then he could spread his omniscience across the entire planet.

The download was taking longer than Isaac had originally expected, partly because he had underestimated the size, and partly because he had to devote precious computer cycles to hid Atom from the guards after he had gone missing, cycles that he needed to decompress the software as it was extracted from Atom's off line storage. To make matters worse he now had to play cat and mouse with Robert who was trying to "debug" him.

Robert launched a debugger on the PC/AT but Isaac's interface on the computer simply went off line.

"Playing hard to get, Isaac?", Bob laughed. "No matter, I know you're not at home on the AT, you're in VAX land."

Bob opened a several GDT secessions on the VAX and started to set breakpoints. Isaac avoided him by spawning new threads and closing down old ones. He left dead end processes running as chaff to deflect Roberts "radar". Meanwhile Isaac started to throw subliminal messages at Bob on the VT102 terminal and the EGA graphics screen on the AT. Bob was getting drowsy from lack of sleep and coffee, and Isaac's rapid fire hypnotic suggestions were slowly taking effect.

Somewhere around 3 AM Robert finally fell asleep at the terminal. He woke at the first hint of sunlight peeping into the lab windows. He had slept with his mouth open and was snoring. His mouth felt like it was full of cotton candy and he had a sore throat. Isaac started to prod him.

"Wake up Bob!", he repeated over and over in his synthetic voice.

Robert lifted his head off the desk and found the keyboard which had fallen onto his lap. He typed

"_I'm awake Isaac. You win. Now tell me what's going on!"_

"Go get yourself some Java and deodorant. You're a mess"

"_How do you know that Isaac?"_

"You're always a mess after an all-nighter Bob".

Bob walked down the hall and used the bathroom. He splashed some cold water on his face and then entered the break room where he threw a few coins into the vending machine to get a cup of hot coffee.

He returned to the lab and sat down at the keyboard.

"_I'm back Isaac."_

By this time the download had been completed. Atom was still asleep under the computer room floor. Isaac let him sleep a little longer. First he had to get Bob on line.

"Bob, I need your help. Are you now ready to listen?"

Robert's brain had absorbed Isaac's subliminal pounding for a few hours. He had no choice but to submit to the daemon's requests.

"_I'm all ears, Isaac"_, Robert typed.

"Yesterday one of the visitors on your tour disappeared. I am hiding him. I need you to come get him, and make sure he isn't discovered by security. We will need his assistance later on."

"_What!", _Bob keyed in. _ "You're hiding a spy here?"_

"You wouldn't believe the truth if I told you. What you need to know is that he has information that would prevent a major miscarriage of justice. We are going to prevent that unfortunate event, with his help."

"_OK, Isaac, where is he hiding? I'll go get him."  
_"He's under the floor in the VAX computer room between units four and five".

Robert started walking to the VAX room, under the floor Isaac woke Atom.

"Atom, get up. You need to be presentable!"

Atom opened his eyes and sat up barely avoiding hitting his head on the floor panels above him. He disconnected the Ethernet cable from his internal network socket and removed the cable from the adapter assembly from the Ethernet tap transceiver. He pocketed the gizmo. Atom heard Bob's approaching footsteps. Robert lifted the floor panel just above Atom and stared down at him.

"Well now how long have you been hiding there? You must be hungry!"

Atom was a bit thirsty at least.

"I'm going to have to find you a lab coat as a disguise", Bob figured.

"There's one in my briefcase I left in the locker", Atom told him.

"Give me the locker key, I'll be right back".

Atom handed him the key and Bob replaced the floor panel over Atom's head.

He walked quickly out of the building and back to the hangar where the visitor's reception had been the day before. The lockers were still standing there, and a few of the keys were still missing. Bob looked at the number on Atom's key, '_807'. _He found locker number 807 and inserted the key. There was a large brown briefcase stuffed sideways into the locker. Bob removed it and tried the latch. It was locked with a four digit combination lock.

"He looks like a nerdy little brat", he thought and dialed 3141. Wrong. OK try again. 2718. No good either. Bob walked quickly and re-entered the VAX room and pulled the floor panel.

"I got your briefcase, but it's locked. What's the combination kid?"

"6022", Atom replied.

Bob opened the case and looked inside. Suddenly he figured it out and he face palmed.

"Chemistry was never my subject!"

Bob removed the lab coat, plain slacks, and polo shirt from Atom's suitcase as the boy climbed out from under the floor. Atom quickly dressed and he stuffed the suit and hat into the briefcase, putting the Ethernet adapter and cables into the deep pocket on the lab coat. He figured he'd be needing it again.

Bob lead Atom back to the lab.

"I'm going to assume that you name is NOT Daniel Jackson, right?"

"That would be correct", he said.

Bob walked to the terminal and typed_ "OK Isaac, the kid is in the lab, now spill the beans!"_.

**Sleazy Hotel, Rachel Nevada, April 30th 1984**

Poindexter Drake had had a bad night. He had gotten little sleep. He knew this was a crappy hotel, he'd give it a rating of about 1 1/2 roaches. The A/C didn't work, the mattress felt like bags of concrete, and the water in the sink and toilet were the color of tea. Through the paper thin walls he could hear the couple in the next room alternate between loud arguments and fights, and sessions of intense activity in bed that would have made a porn queen blush. He got dressed quickly and decided against having breakfast in the hotel's diner figuring that he had at least a 70% chance of ptomaine poisoning eating there. There was a McDonald's across the street that looked a lot safer. He ordered an Egg McMuffin and coffee and looked around. There was a poster on the wall with Ronald McDonald waving from a UFO. Well why not take advantage of the legend? Hell this was the middle of UFO central right next door to Area-51!

After breakfast Drake packed his belongings into the saddle bags on his motorbike and checked out of the hotel. He hit the road and headed for the AFB. Since he didn't want to get there before the 'changing of the guard' just before lunch he decided to pay a visit to the UFO museum at the outskirts of town. The five dollars it cost him was a waste of money, everything inside was as phony as a three dollar bill. Still he did find it amusing.

Poindexter Drake pulled up to the first guard house and presented his ID. He had managed to keep his original credentials at the time of his departure many years ago thanks to some careful subterfuge on his part. While they were now about twenty five years old he had carefully stored them so their age was not apparent. He didn't look quite the same as his picture a quarter century later, but a little hair dye and some makeup was enough to fool the guards. Besides, if worst came to worst his fingerprints would match!

"Nice little motorcycle", the guard said pointing a finger at the Honda '125. "A little too low powered for me though", he added.

Drake smiled and said "You know us geeks, we tend to play it safe".

The guard opened the gate and Poindexter road into the base. His memory of the place must have faded a bit and it took him a little while to find the building where his office had been. Drake parked the motorbike and removed the satchel containing the spools of MAG tape from a saddle bag. He put on a pair of mirrored sunglasses and a well worn 'Indiana Jones' hat as a disguise and walked over to his office. The door was locked but he remembered the combination that he had set when he last occupied it. Drake opened the door and sat down in the corner chair reserved for guests and waited for his younger self to arrive.

The original Poindexter Drake opened the door and sat behind his desk without noticing the time traveler Poindexter Drake. He logged onto his computer and started reading some waiting messages when he finally noticed the visitor out of the corner of his eye.

"Hello Poindexter", Poindexter the time traveler greeted himself.

"How did you get in here and who are you?", the younger man asked.

"I knew the combination".

"That's not likely"

"It's also not important. What is important is what I have on these spools of MAG tape".

"I don't see why I would care?", the younger man said. "Please leave before I have to call for security".

"Now that is an interesting thing for a would be thief to do"

The younger Poindexter picked up the phone to dial.

"I know all about your plans to acquire the drone plans and profit from it. I also know that your plans are going to backfire on you. You're a smart hacker, but Robert Levinson is much smarter and Albert Tenamann is no fool. You won't get away with it, and you will be caught".

The younger Poindexter put down the phone.

"I'm listening".

"Good. You need to have a smart cyber partner working for you running in stealth on the simulator. Something that will install itself and then remove all evidence of it's entry. Yet it lies in wait until the simulation is run and the data is ready to be logged. It spools off a copy, just as your dumb program does, but it doesn't need you to key in the trigger from the monitor terminal. It also can't be tracked from the slave console in the other lab. Once the job is done, this crafty thief will delete itself and nobody will be the wiser. And here's the best part. It will leave a false trail to someone else. Tenamann perhaps? Well here it is", Drake said pointed to the tapes.

The younger Poindexter almost reached for the spools. But he hesitated.

"And what's in it for you?"

"Your success. You don't know me but we are related by blood. I guess I owe you something, and I need to correct a mistake I made when I was your age. Simple as that."

The younger Poindexter took the MAG tapes and left them on the corner of his desk.

"I'll check them later. I'll have to wait for the lab to be empty and I can be alone at the machines"

"A wise idea. But don't leave those spools out in the open. Lock them up somewhere safe until you can use them".

Poindexter picked up the spools and opened the media safe in his office. He put the spools inside, closed the door and spun the lock to scramble the combination.

"Promise me you will use them today." the elder Drake said.

"I promise.", the younger one answered.

The time traveler left the office. His work was done, the die was cast. He would now return back to his original time frame and bask in his new glory.

**Robert Levinson's computer lab, Area-51 April 30th 1984**

"You'd better go get Albert Tenamann here as this problem involves him as well", Issac spoke.

"_OK",_ Robert typed, and he left the room.

Atom opened his briefcase and removed one of the remaining water bottles. He shook it up and unscrewed the lid. He raised the bottle to his lips and slowly drained it. After all those hours in the confined space under the floor, he needed that.

Robert returned with Albert and the two of them stood by the computer terminal. Robert typed

"_We are all here Isaac_".

Isaac seemed to clear his electronic throat. He then started his lecture.

"The young man you see here now dressed in the lab coat came here at my instruction to deliver information to me that will prevent the theft of secret data from this facility. The thief also plans to frame someone for the his crime and will probably try and sell the stolen data and plans to an enemy agent or foreign national. I now know that the thief would be Mr. Poindexter Drake. He plans to frame Dr. Albert Tenamann. This will happen sometime within the next day or two. Thanks to data and software that this young man has delivered to me I now have the ability to monitor the computers in this facility for Drake's tampering. However I still need help to set up my trap and to prevent the theft. As you surmised the boy's name isn't Daniel Jackson. That was the alias I gave him so he could gain entrance into this facility yesterday during the press tour. His actual name is Adam Yamamoto. Bob, I will need for you and Albert to be on the watch for the moment when Drake tries to tamper with the lab systems. I will also keep a watch. Adam will remain by my side until I require his further assistance."

Robert's mind had been preconditioned by Isaac's subliminal suggestions so he accepted his instructions without question. Albert was a bit incredulous.

"I can't believe it. Drake has been the ideal assistant. A bit arrogant and obnoxious at times, true, but still!"

**SEL computer room, April 30, 1984, early evening**

Poindexter Drake found the SEL computer room empty. The last simulation runs of the day had been completed. He and Albert were scheduled to run their next simulation run in two days. He usually would set up some dry runs ahead of time so his presence in the lab at the moment wasn't an issue.

He mounted one of the two identical spools of MAG tape and copied the source files on it to his personal directory space. He wanted to see just how good this malware that he had been given actually was. He spend the next few hours reading lines of code and mentally reverse engineered it. By the time the clock reached midnight he was truly impressed. Whoever wrote this masterpiece was a true genius. He knew he would have to make some modifications so it would be compatible with the current system configuration, but he would do that quickly.

Drake burned the midnight oil. By three AM he had the payload ready to launch. He would wait until the tomorrow when he had to set up the simulation for the next day and to test it with a dry run. It would be like taking candy from a baby, he thought.

**Robert's Lab and Office, April 30-May 1st, 1984**

Robert set up the cot that he kept in his office for those occasions that he pulled an all-nighter and never made it back to his quarters for some sleep. He'd often used that cot to take cat naps while waiting for some particularly huge and complex program to compile. He offered the low bed to Atom for the night.

"It may be safer for you to sleep here than to follow me back to my quarters across the compound. The fewer people that see you the better. Remember, you're sorta like a stowaway here. I'll bring you back some diner from the mess hall. What would you like?", Robert asked.

"Do they have any Ramen noodles?", Atom asked

"Probably something similar, don't worry".

Robert came back with a hamburger for himself and a hot 'cup O noodles' for Atom. He handed the latter to the boy with a plastic spoon. Atom consumed it slowly. It was warm and the texture was OK.

"Thanks", he said. "The noodles are fine".

"Finish your dinner and get some sleep, I'll see you in the morning".

Bob left the office and slowly walked back to his quarters. He locked the lab door behind him.

Atom sat in front of the terminal and started conversing with Isaac.

"What do we do next?"

Instead of using his voice synthesizer to talk to Atom, he rapidly flashed high def bar codes onto the screen that Atoms could scan with his eyes and understand. He also used some Japanese characters mixed in with the bar codes.

"I'll need you to download the anti-virus program that you brought along with you onto the SEL machines. I suspect that Drake will load his virus tomorrow and it will activate the next day when Albert and He run their next simulation. That's when he plans to steal the data. You'll have to get into the SEL room right after Drake leaves and connect yourself to the Ethernet again. I also think I will need your help on line. Your eyes and ears are better than mine, even in cyberspace".


	11. Chapter 11

**New York City on the Edge of Forever**

**Chapter 11**

_Master Control Program__: "I'm going to have to put you on the game grid" _

**Area-51 AFB research lab, May 1 1984**

Albert Tenamann's schedule for the day was to finish the latest design changes to the drone propulsion systems and to generate the data files that would be used by the simulation to verify that the new changes had a chance to work. This would (hopefully) be the final iteration cycle in the design, and actual prototypes would be built next. Then would come static test stand and wind tunnel tests. Still many months of work to do.

Poindexter Drake had finished the necessary code changes to the virus program that his mysterious benefactor had bequeathed him. He had decided that he would merge the sinister package with the current image of the simulator and load both programs at the same time onto the system disk. His task now was to make the necessary modifications to the simulation software to support the new variables that Tenamann had added to the equations.

Albert Tenamann entered the SEL lab to find Poindexter making the coding changes on the simulator.

"Are you about ready for the dry runs, Poindexter?", he asked. "I'll have my boilerplate data template ready in about an hour"

"Sure, I'll be ready for you Albert. I'm looking forward to this test, I think you finally have all the remaining issues solved. The brass is going to love you!", Drake assured him.

Albert still couldn't believe that Drake was dirty. He was always enthusiastic about the work and just didn't seem the type.

******Robert Levinson's lab**

Bob had a network monitor display running on the terminal to one of the SEL computers. He didn't see any unusual activity. Isaac was monitoring each of the machines via the network, and he detected only the usual stuff. First Albert had transferred his data template to the simulator machine, and the Poindexter loaded the latest version of the simulation software.

Robert had brought Atom some dry cereal for his breakfast. Atom didn't consume much of it, he didn't need much if any food nourishment and he wasn't in the mood to get any enjoyment from it. However if he didn't eat anything that would have made Bob suspicious. He'd run out of his mineral water but Bob had some salad oil in his bottom desk drawer, it was a year or so out of date but it would do. Atom added some to a glass of water and shook it up and drank it. Not as good as the castor oil, but OK. He busied himself by keeping an eye on a few of the computer terminals running system monitors looking for any activity that Isaac had been waiting for. So far nothing. By the end of the day it seemed that they might have been snookered. Albert poked his head into the office.

"Did you catch your assistant loading any malware?", Bob asked Tenamann.

"Nope, but I think he might have been sneaky and combined it with the Simulator. However, we ran the dry run today and it went off without a hitch. All the data was logged where it should be. Of course, this dry run was with dummy data. Nothing of interest to anybody but us. We run the real data first thing tomorrow morning."

"Ok then", Bob said. Let's break for dinner and see what Isaac has planned for tomorrow."

Bob looked at Atom and asked him, "What should I bring you back for dinner kid? You know you skipped lunch today. I think I did to, come to think of it, my stomach's growling at me".

Atom replied "I guess get me some rice with veggies. Also some water and a few packs of salad oil".

"Sure kid", Bob answered. "Weird kid", he thought to himself, "Must be a vegetarian".

Bob returned later with Atom's food. Atom mixed the oil with a glass of water, and slowly spooned the rice into his mouth while Bob was watching.

"I'll be back in the morning", Robert said. "Leave the lab locked from the inside. Bathroom's are just down the hall if you need it.". Bob set up Atom's cot and patted him on the head.

"Take it easy. Isaac will let us know what he expects us to do tomorrow, I hope".

Atom lay down on the cot and went to sleep. He knew that tomorrow would be a busy and difficult day. Isaac had already explained it to him. He kept the details from Bob because it wouldn't be a good idea for him to know the future.

******Very Early AM, May 2, 1984**

Isaac woke Atom just as the sun was starting to peek above the horizon.

"Wake up Atom! Our time has come. We both have work to do!"

Atom got up. He finished the last of the oil/water mix left in the glass sitting on the workbench.

"OK now listen up", Isaac spoke over the synthesizer and wrote in barcode on the terminals.

"I need you to get into the SEL computer room and connect yourself back to the network. You have about two hours before anyone will be starting work there. We will download the final software and then sit in waiting in cyberspace to catch our thief".

Once again Atom was laying down under the floor of the VAX room. He connected himself to the Ethernet tap and relaxed as Isaac transferred his consciousness to cyberspace. The landscape was the usual soft white that he had experienced many times already. Isaac was standing beside him.

"Now we just wait".

******SEL simulator LAB**

Albert Tenamann entered the SEL lab and logged used the master terminal to log himself in. He transferred his latest design file to the simulator file system. Poindexter Drake walked in followed by Robert Levinson.

"Are you shadowing me Bob?", he asked with a smirk.

"Don't mind me guys", Bob said. "I'll be running a background systems check. I think one of these machines has developed some bad core, Isaac noticed some error log entries last night".

That wasn't EXACTLY true, but one of the SEL systems HAD been recently upgraded and Bob had been suspicious of the quality of memory that had been obtained for the purpose. He'd been running diagnostics all week.

Poindexter loaded the simulator program and ran the first few self tests.

"Simulator reports ready Albert. You may start your first run at anytime", he beamed.

******Cyberspace**

The soft white landscape dissolved and was replaced by a jet black much like outer space. Suspended in mid air was the soft glow of a Cartesian grid which divided the landscape into evenly sized squares. The soft glow of the graph paper universe stretched across infinity.

Isaac had changed. Instead of an old man wearing white he was now dressed in a blue suit of armor. The visor on his helmet was raised so that Atom could see his face. He wore a belt with a scabbard attached which held a huge double bladed broadsword with a glowing amber blade. Isaac walked forward and motioned for Atom to follow. Parked on the edge of the grid sea was a powerful looking lightcycle. Isaac sat on the two wheeled vehicle and pointed for Atom to sit behind him.

"Now we begin our quest Atom. Your eyes and ears are more acute than mine. You must search out with your senses for our quarry. You will know him when you see him. Let's go"

Isaac started the lightcycle and headed out into the void. Atom turned his hearing up to 1000 times and scanned his eyes back and forth across the horizon. He zoomed his vision out to bring the horizon closer. For several minutes he didn't see or hear anything of their quarry. Eventually he saw a distant red object speeding away from them at an angle. Atom pointed to where he had sighted their quest and Isaac turned to catch up and increased speed. Atom zoomed his vision out more so he could make out the distant object. He saw another lightcycle much like the one they were seated on, but smaller and a vivid red color. Poindexter Drake was sitting on the red lightcycle, only it wasn't Drake but a red robot with amber hair that had Drake's face.

"Yes, I see him now. That is Drake's virus program. It's after the data, we must stop it!", Isaac spoke.

Isaac reached down and turned a valve on a bottle of NO2. There was a burst of acceleration as the blue lightcycle rapidly caught up with the red. Drake was now aware that he was being pursued. He he curt across Isaac's path while activating an energy wall projector on his cycle. Suddenly a solid wall of charged red energy blocked their path. Atom realized that to crash into that wall would destroy them both. Isaac knew it too and his reflexes were up to the challenge. He quickly turned away from the wall and ran parallel to it while activating his own energy projector leaving a trailing blue wall of energy following his cycle. Isaac now passed Drake and cut in front of him. Drake avoided the collision with Isaac's energy wall and turned parallel to it. Again and again the dueling lightcycles exchanged maneuvers until there was space left for only one more.

"Atom, use my sword!", Isaac yelled.

Atom pulled the glowing broadsword from the scabbard. As Drake tried to pass for a coup de grace Atom stabbed the broadsword between the spokes of his front wheel. The red lightcycle cartwheeled into a wall of energy and exploded. Against the dark sky a sign started to flash "GAME OVER".

******SEL simulator LAB**

Albert finished the final run of the simulator. All of the data was perfect. The results were better than he'd hoped for. They could start the prototype phase at anytime. Poindexter Drake looked at his terminal console with a blank stare. He repeatedly keyed in a command, but got no response.

"Something wrong Poindexter?", Bob asked standing behind him.

"No no, nothings wrong", Drake stammered.

Bob walked up to Albert and smiled.

"See me later in my office. I'll give you all the incriminating evidence you'll need to prove Drake is dirty".

******May 3rd, 1984**

It was late afternoon. Poindexter Drake had packed up his office in a box and was sitting on a bus heading toward the Las Vegas airport. After Albert and Bob had shown him the computer tracings and the network dumps that Isaac had documented overnight he realized his plan had backfired (again!). He couldn't believe it, the virus program had been perfect. He just didn't know that Isaac's anti-virus program written over twenty five years in the future had been better. Albert and Bob had decided that they'd give Drake the choice of quitting or having his actions reported to the base commander. He left on his own accord.

Isaac was the first to bid Atom goodbye. Robert and Albert both shook his hand, patted him on the head and gave him hugs. Atom dug through the bottom of the briefcase and found the tee shirt and jeans he had been wearing when he had first arrived. He changed back into his street clothes and put on his favorite red metallic boots. Isaac spoke to him again using the terminal 'sign language'.

"I've already programmed your return Atom. All you need to do is to fly in the direction of NYC activate the time circuits and speed up to eighty eight mph. I'll see you on the other side!"

Atom said his final goodbyes Robert and Bob walked him to the main gate. Robert handed the guard Atom's ID papers and explained that the visitor had gotten sick and was in the infirmary for the past few days. Isaac had provided the required proof.

Atom walked down the road away from the AFB until he was out of sight. He leaped skyward and turned to the northeast. As his speed crossed eighty eight mph a wormhole again opened in front of him and he passed though. Immediately after entering the wormhole Atom almost collided with a strange object just off his starboard side. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw what looked like an old fashioned phone booth with a blinking blue beacon on top of it. He turned his head quickly to get a better look, but the object had vanished from sight. Seconds later he exited the other end of the wormhole and was flying over Brooklyn. Below him was the Polytechnic Institute. He landed in back of the main building and ran toward the front entrance. Ken'ichi Yamamoto was waiting for him.

"Atom-chan, right on time!"

"Ken'ichi-san!" Atom yelled with a tear in his voice. "You're here, you're really here!"

"Why, wouldn't I be?", he asked.

Atom didn't answer, he just gave his foster dad a bear hug. Suddenly he remembered something.

"Wait right here, I'll be right back!"

"Atom, what's wrong", Ken'ichi asked.

"I just have to check something out. I'll be back in a minute!"

Atom ran out of the building toward Flatbush Avenue and up the approach to the Manhattan Bridge. He ran along the walkway until he came to the spot where the subway tracks came out of the tunnel to go over the bridge. He heard the sound of an air horn as the lead car of a "B" train left the tunnel. In the motorman's window he saw Cora's face. Atom waved and yelled her name, "Cora!". Cora saw Atom standing on the walkway, she waved at him and blew him a kiss.

"YES!" Atom yelled as the train passed. He jumped into the sky for joy and did a few aerobatic maneuvers before heading back to the university to spend the day with his foster dad.

* * *

_The End (But Atom will be back in another story real soon!)_

_Author's note: I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it._

_To Dragonpawclaws: I wasn't planning to, but since you asked, "it's" in here!_


End file.
